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It's time for another analysis. Why? Because I said so, that's why. Today's victim: the Gyaravire combo.
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Gyarados          Electivire
HP - 95            HP - 75
Atk - 125         Atk - 123
Def - 79           Def - 67
SpA - 60          SpA - 95
SpD - 100         SpD - 85
Spd - 81           Spd - 95

This strategy looked good on paper (send out Gyarados to draw an Electric attack, then send in Electivire to absorb it and get it a Speed boost), but opponents started getting free KOs off this combo so it fell into disuse. But can it be saved?
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Gyarados:   @Leftovers       Nature: Jolly       EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Electivire:   @Life Orb          Nature: Jolly       EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Gyarados' Moves
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Dragon Dance
-Thunder Wave/Stone Edge

Electivire's Moves
-Wild Charge
-Ice Punch
-Cross Chop/Brick Break
-Earthquake

Usually, if your opponent is good at prediction, this strategy falls apart on the switch to Electivire, during which your opponent will bring in a Dugtrio, etc. and scare out Electivire with the threat of an OHKO, and Rock Slide/Stone Edge will dish out heavy damage to Gyarados if he switches back in. Only this time, you predict that switch on the turn when you'd usually switch, and either use Dragon Dance or Waterfall (or Earthquake, I suppose). Then after you either boost or get a KO, your opponent will ACTUALLY use an Electric-move to get rid of the threat of Gyarados, allowing you set up an Electivire sweep. Or, alternatively, they won't and you score another KO or boost and pull a Gyarados sweep.

Other Options

Stop reading this.

Counters

Getting out-predicted is the biggest threat to this strategy, as it will either lead to your opponent getting a cheap KO (i.e. Gyarados getting zapped) or the strategy getting disabled.

Final Rating

3.25 out of 5 stars

Marked down for being somewhat difficult to pull off, but effective when it does get pulled off.

Time for another addition of Competitor's Corner. Today's victim (in light of Richard's last article and sympathy of it): Flareon.
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Flareon
HP - 65
Atk - 130
Def - 60
SpA - 95
SpD - 110
Spd - 65

Flareon must've done something pretty bad just before the release of RBY, because I think they decided to then to give him a crappy movepool and take 50 base points off half his stats. Anyway, I'll try to save this unfortunate, lost soul from the clutches of Nintendo.
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Physical Attacker 
@Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Moves:
-Overheat
-Iron Tail
-Superpower
-Quick Attack
If you can somehow find a way to bring Flareon in safely (on a Fire attack or following a KO), do so and proceed to use Overheat off that respectable base 95 SpA and destroy your only STAB move. After you're done with that, Flareon has a few more lousy options. Iron Tail hits Rock-types upside the head 75% of the time, Superpower does the same thing with better accuracy (and it hits Steel-types super-effectively after Overheat's been destroyed), and Quick Attack can be used to actually outrun something and maybe surprise KO it.

Other Options

WHAT other options? You can try running a support movepool with Wish, Protect, and some other stuff, but base 65 HP and 60 Def undermine that great 110 Special Def, so it's not very viable. You can use Fire Fang over Overheat and actually use it multiple times, but Overheat has more power to start and a surprise factor, and Flareon needs every advantage it can get. But feel free to use Fire Fang anyway.

Counters

Slowbro, Slowking, Tentacruel, Gyarados, Starmie, and Jellicent (and many others) completely wall Flareon and can deal serious damage back. Golurk has to watch out for Overheat but can come in afterwards and OHKO Flareon easily with Earthquake. If Flareon eats a Toxic, that in itself is a counter with base 65 HP. I'll stop right here, because I want this section to end eventually.

Final Rating

2.5 out of 5 stars

Bonus points for sticking it out in the face of adversity, but the thing is just simply not that good. Deplore yourselves, Nintendo! And get this thing Guts!

Now's the time for my next post... after nobody commented on my first one, suspiciously, as if they were trying to drive me away because that analysis sucked (oh wait, it did).
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Slaking - Normal                Medicham - Psychic/Fighting
Ability: Truant                  Abilities: Pure Power, Telepathy
Base Stats:                      Base Stats:
HP - 150                         HP - 60
Atk - 160                        Atk - 60
Def - 100                        Def - 75
SpA - 95                         SpA - 60
SpD - 65                         SpD - 75
Spd - 100                        Spd - 80

Slaking is one of my favorite Pokemon (which explains why I lose more than I win) because it's strong and lazy, like me. So lazy, in fact, that it has to rest every other turn, which neutralizes its great strength. So what's a poor, ability-crippled Pokemon to do? Why, get into a double battle, get its ability changed to the best in the game, and start murdering things.

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Swap 'n' Sweep
Slaking:       @Life Orb    Nature: Jolly    EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Medicham:   @Choice Scarf  Nature: Jolly            EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
                 Ability: Pure Power
Slaking's Moves
-Earthquake
-Night Slash
-Return
-Fire Punch

Medicham's Moves
-Skill Swap
-3 more moves if you want

Simple strategy: Medicham uses Skill Swap on Slaking to give it Pure Power, then tell your opponent, "Good luck," because they'll need it to stop an 838 Attack behemoth with base 100 Speed and base 150 HP. Earthquake annihilates Rock- and Steel-types, Night Slash tears Ghosts apart, Body Slam's just a good STAB move, and Fire Punch will destroy Skarmory. To add to your fun, after Skill Swapping Pure Power on to Slaking and Truant on to Medicham, you can dump Truant off on your opponent.

Other Options

You can, uh, change Slaking to Regigigas or Medicham to Gengar or Alakazam, I guess...

Counters

If you can get Pure Power on to Slaking, you've pretty much already won, so in getting it on to is where you'll likely be stopped. Prankster/Aerodactyl Taunts will shut this combo down, which means you'll have to switch out and try to Taunt the Taunter. Also, Medicham could get KO'd (an extremely unlikely event) if your opponent leads with Aerodactyl and Jolteon.

Final Rating

4 out of 5 stars

Gets marked down for being difficult to pull off, but extremely effective once it does get pulled off.

Hi there!
This is my new pseudo-blog where I attempt to issue competitive battling advice in the form of analyzing Pokemon and offering up movesets. I might throw in some random analyses of other stuff too. Anyway, I'll try to analyze something new at least 3 times a week. Feel free to inject your opinion, make suggestions, or rant about how terrible my last post was.
Here goes...
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Venusaur - Grass/Poison type
Abilities: Overgrow, Chlorophyll
Base Stats
HP - 80
Atk - 82
Def - 83
SpA - 100
SpD - 100
Spd - 80

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Sun Sweeper
@Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Nature: Modest
EVs: 4/0/0/252/0/252
Moves:
-Solarbeam
-Sludge Bomb
-HP Fire/HP Psychic
-Sunny Day/Growth/Synthesis
Solarbeam is obvious on this set, a 120 BP STAB attack running off base 100 SpA.  Sludge Bomb gets STAB and is a special attack, as well as a 30% Poison rate (regular Poison, unfortunately) and it gives Venusaur a way to get by enemy Grass-types. The Hidden Power is a somewhat tough decision: HP Psychic has a shot at OHKOing Gengar without a critical hit, whereas HP Fire allows Venusaur to not get completely walled by Steel-types, and as such will be the weapon of choice. The fourth move is really filler; Sunny Day restarts strong sun, Growth juices up Venusaur's Special Attack, and Synthesis restores health lost by Life Orb recoil.

Annoyer
@Black Sludge/Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
Nature: Bold
EVs: 100/0/200/8/200/0
Moves:
-Giga Drain
-Sleep Powder
-Toxic
-Leech Seed
This set is for the more adventurous among you. Lead with Sleep Powder, then either seed the sleeping Pokemon/switch-in or use Toxic to cripple the switch-in. Use Giga Drain to replenish health in tandem with Leech Seed. The hold item depends on how adventurous you feel: Black Sludge can harm your opponent potentially, but can also harm you potentially, whereas Leftovers can't harm you or your opponent.
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Other options

Uhhh... You can change the Hidden Power type to Bug to get past Psychic-types, I guess. You can try running some sort of physically attacking set, but base 82 Attack will only get you so far, so it's really just a gimmick. You could throw your opponent for a loop and run Sleep Powder on the sweeper set I guess, too.
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Counters

All versions of Venusaur lacking HP Fire will get completely walled by Steel-types. All versions of Venusar period get walled by special walls such as Blissey. Choice Banded Heracross will OHKO Sun Sweeper Venusaur with Megahorn 100% of the time. Also threatening the Sun Sweeper are weather-changers such as Politoed and Abomasnow. Major threats to the Annoyer include anything with Sap Sipper, like Tauros or Sawsbuck.
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Final Rating

4.5/5 stars

For all those counters to Venusaur, it is still, if used correctly, a very good Pokemon, so don't hesitate to stick it on your sun team or annoyer team.

Okay, Joeno, you say this is mostly volunteer work, meaning you are doing it for the love of Pokemon, and I thank you.

But forget the name rater and remember this decrease in forum activity. As for us users, we need to be proactive. Sitting around talking about the fact forums activities are down is probably not going to help their activity go up. I have an idea that might help if we can muster the motivation. Yesterday I put up a pro-SMP (Standard Movesets Project) revival post (which had not had anything posted on it for the previous 426 days) and was told that we had neither the manpower nor the motivation to revive it. Well, the fact is we definitely have the manpower, but we need to get motivated. Why is forum activity down? Because sites like Smogon are taking over. Why? Because we here at pkmn.net aren't coming up with anything original and just letting Smogon do everything like new movesets, strategies, etc. The solution is to revive the SMP and actually coming up with original movesets, which will in turn lead to new strategies, which will lead to an increase in forum activity because people will want their teams rated. There have 2 posts in the Team Building forum since October 24, and one of those was a new topic! Unless we as users do can make something happen, not necessarily the SMP revival but just anything, nothing will happen!

To Richard's point back on page 1, the higher-ups on this site need to get some motivation too. Do THEY want pkmn.net to go defunct?! Do THEY?!?! Because if they do, they'd better start caring! Because unless they start caring articles like Richard's will KEEP getting rejected and people will KEEP continue to not care.

Thank you for reading this post, which may lead to an increase in this forum's activity.

Yeah, you're right, but it isn't weak to energy ball and can beat up Ninetales, Politoed, and Tyranitar.

Of course, Tentacruel is the infinitely better option.

Whoops...

Okay that advice was probably not the best, but I think I can fix it.
If you lead with Abomasnow, switch out immediately, maybe for Tentacruel (due to its Special Defense) or possibly Ludicolo. Neither is weak to Energy Ball, and both can learn ice moves and handle Politoed (especially Ludicolo) and Tyranitar and definitely Ninetales.

Actually, Cloyster has super high defense and can handle every steel-type with the possible exception of Thunderbolt Registeel and the definite exception of Magnezone (which it probably can't OHKO with HP Ground).

I don't mean to be picky, but you should tell your partner to "Stay Put" or whatever it's called so that you don't have to wait as long for support. Plus, if it's NOT a monster house, you'll have to cross the room to wait for your partner to catch up after you change the tactic back.

All that said, you need to use either the bottleneck method, or use vacuum cut and discharge and possibly earthquake in conjunction (well, maybe not earthquake), or level up to 100 and wipe everyone out with a normal attack.

A hail team could be viable, provided some clever forward thinking is used.

For example:
If you lead off with Abomasnow, what's your opponent (probably) going to do?
a)send out a fire-type, or
b)send out Drought Ninetales, Drizzle Politoed, or Tyranitar.
Politoed or Tyranitar will fall to Wood Hammer, so you can catch them on the switch-in. However, your opponent may have thought about this before hand, so they will most likely bring in a fire-type. My recommendation, then, is to send out  a Quagsire (I know, i know, it takes hail damage) and use Ice Beam. I know you're targeting a fire-type but like anyone will leave out a fire-type against a Quagsire. They will most likely switch out for a flying-type (to counter Earthquake) or a grass-type, both of which are destroyed by Ice Beam. At this point, you can switch out for another ice-type or Abomasnow to replenish hail in the case of Drought Ninetales or Sunny Day.
If they did send out Politoed or Tyranitar however, you MUST SWITCH ABOMASNOW BACK IN. well, so long as they didn't decide to send out a fire-type, in which case you should send in a water-ice type with {Thick Fat}.
If, at any point during the battle, they send out a steel-type, you should send out Cloyster, which has amazing Defense and in addition can proceed to destroy the steel-type with one of the many anti-Steel type attacks in its arsenal.
If a Charizard/Moltres in brought out, wipe it out with Mamoswine.

So...yeah. that's pretty much strategy for any hail team.

Hope it helps.

Awkward Beam
Normal
Power:100
Accuracy:95
Special
PP:10
A multi-color strobe light is launched. It disorients the foe so greatly, it always confuses it.

I'm happy with my life in general. I mean, not everyone gets to go to a good school, have a house, always have food, go on pkmn.net