VGC 2015 Team - Safeguard the Salamence

[Hahex and Oshawott]

Hey guys, haven't put down one of these in a while. I was just taking a shower when a sudden lightbulb of inspiration hit me. "If the one problem that physical attackers have to deal with are burns and intimidate, what happens if I safeguard one of them and make the other one a risky mindgame?" Put two and two together and this team was born.


Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
- Earthquake

The core player of the team. Double-Edge gets rid of all those pesky amoongus as well as just generally doing a nice bit of damage. Dragon Dance lets me outspeed scarfers if I get a chance to use it, and gives me another option to avoid getting Sucker Punched. Not sure about Earthquake, I could slash it out for Rock Slide to deal with Charizard-Y but EQ lets me hit Heatran and has higher base damages. Landorus-T also carries those two moves so it's tricky to decide.

Meowstic (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Safeguard
- Light Screen
- Reflect

Need a bit of help with the EV spread for this one. I'm not convinced that full defense is necessary. I guess it doesn't matter too much since I have Double Screens but still. Considering swapping Lum Berry for Light Clay, since Assist Prankster Liepard doesn't seem common at all. But VGC games are so short anyway that I'm not sure that it'll make much difference anyway, in which case Sitrus Berry is probably preferred. I only desperately need it for the safeguarding anyway.


Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 236 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpA / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Safeguard
- Protect

My primary option to deal with intimidate users and other stat debuffers. Considering it's supposed to be used as some sort of Competitive sweeper, I'm thinking the EV spread might need to be overhauled. Currently it's just something I lifted off a nugget bridge article (like everything in this team). But Icy Wind gives the team some much needed (?) speed control, and having another source of safeguard is beneficial. Scald could be slashed for Surf but then it's not like I have a great water resistance on my own side either.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower

You probably see plenty of this on the OU ladder as it is. Its role in VGC 2015 isn't greatly different, apart from added Rock Slide flinch shenanigans. Superpower is run to hit Kangaskhan, Ferrothorn, Tyranitar and other such Pokemon who do not appreciate a fist to the face. Since Salamence is going to mega-evolve fairly early on most times, having another source of intimidate is essential.


Rotom-Heat @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 4 SpA / 136 SpD / 28 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Mostly included for burn support. Heat form gives a bit more variety to my team coverage, giving me more opportunities to smack those Steel, Grass and Steel/Grass types round the face. Water types, despite having those water type moves, still get a  little anxious around this Rotom because of the Thunderbolt potential.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Wide Guard
- Flash Cannon
- King's Shield

Another little something to help deal with Kangaskhan. It's untouched by Return and Power-up punch, and Sucker Punch and Earthquake risk proccing the Weakness Policy. As a measure against Kangaskhan, it would be nice to have Sacred Sword on it, but it's also my only measure against Fairy Types, like Clefable and Togekiss (I suppose I have Rotom-H for that one), and Psychic types (I hear Cresselia is back in fashion). Wide Guard might turn out to not be essential, but I'll get back to you on that.

((Side note: The metagame spriting project page is mad hard to navigate. I know no-one's working on it, but I guess I can still express a need to perhaps tidy it up. I think putting them up somewhere on the site would be cool. Do we have a Pokedex page or something? You know what I might make this subject its own thread in a bit.))

So yeah, first impressions people?

[SirBlaziken]

Not a VGC expert here, but I think the some speed would be wa- oh wait it has prankster.

[Raphetty]

Nice team. Not sure if Safeguard is important enough to have it on 2 Pokémon. I think Bisharp would do a better job of punishing Intimidate users than Competitive Milotic, especially as its moves don't hit very hard to start with.

[SirBlaziken]

I think the point with milotic is that it will get a x2 boost instead of a 1.5 for bisharp thanks to intimidate.

[Raphetty]

I think the point with milotic is that it will get a x2 boost instead of a 1.5 for bisharp thanks to intimidate.

That is not even true, both get a x2 boost. In any case they are very different Pokémon; Bisharp is all about the damage, Milotic is a support Pokémon.

[SaRo|Rapidash]

That is not even true, both get a x2 boost. In any case they are very different Pokémon; Bisharp is all about the damage, Milotic is a support Pokémon.

Nah, they both boost stats 2 stages but Bisharps is lowered 1 due to intimidate (defiant doesn't negate the stat change, it acts as well as it) so it has a net change of 1 stage, or a 1.5x boost.

[Hahex and Oshawott]

I could run surf over scald on Milotic, which gives it a much bigger threat. +2 surf hitting both of the opponent Pokemon is nothing to sniff at.