How to deal with the Primals?

Question

I've been challenging some random trainers in the link battles of usum and I've won most of them. The only thing that really gets in my way are the primals. Not even Mega Rayquaza gave me trouble in the battles but the primals are a whole different story, especially Groudon with that annoying ability. So how do I deal with them? This is my current team.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 hp/ 124 Def/ 124 Special Defense
Quirky Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Leech Seed
-Power Whip

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Speed/ 252 Attack/ 4 hp
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Outrage

Milotic @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 252 hp/ 124 def/ 124 Special Defense
Modest Nature
- Toxic
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Scald

Blaziken @ Firium Z
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Speed/252 Attack/ 4 hp
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Brick Break
- Flare Blitz
- Protect

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body --> Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Attack/ 124 Defense/ 124 Special Defense
Quirky Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 Speed/ 124 Attack/ 124 Special Attack
Timid Nature
- U turn
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Dark Pulse

I'm sure my team sucks but this is the best I can come up with at the moment since I chose them for a specific role. Greninja is my ace in the hole in my team because of it's speed and really high special attack. It's role is to pick off a weakened foe to activate it's ability and take down as many Pokemon as it can

Ferrothorn is my first bulky Pokemon. It's just there to provide stealth rocks and leech seed to heal my Pokemon if I decide to switch. Protect is there to get rid of some pp of my opponents and power whip because it never ceases to amaze me how much damage this move deals even without investment. It also provides protection against grass type moves for Greninja and Milotic. I chose to give it leftovers because it is my main stall and I want to keep it alive until absolutely necessary.

Milotic is my second bulky Pokemon. It's there to put as many Pokemon on a timer and stalling them with recover should they choose not to switch out. It also provides ice type protection for my Garchomp. As for it's moves, I'm thinking of replacing Ice Beam with Safeguard to provide protection against burns for Garchomp. I am also considering replacing Milotic with Jellicent but I'm not gonna do it anytime soon since I have no idea and I don't understand how to ev train in usum. I chose to gave it rocky helmet to deter physical attackers from hitting it's weaker defense stat. Does not work always but it does come in handy.

Garchomp is my some sort of sweeper. I chose it because it is my favorite Pokemon and also because it has been the most reliable Pokemon I ever used. It's main role is to protect Milotic and Greninja from electric type moves with it's secondary role, to protect Ferrothorn from fire type moves along with Milotic. For it's item, I gave it choice scarf because it is not my main attacker and it's 102 speed is not as scary as it once was.

Blaziken is my nuke. It's speed boost is simply too good of an ability to pass up. For it's moves, I'm sure Brave Bird along with Flare Blitz is not a good idea but I'm not entirely sure what to replace it with. It's second role is to provide a bit of protection against dark type moves for Metagross

Metagross is my mega. I chose this one because my other five Pokemon have no decent way to deal with the annoying fairies.

I haven't given Ferrothorn, Milotic and Metagross better natures but the neutral works ok. I'm still looking for male Pokemon with better natures for them. For IVs, the only one that has perfect IVs is Garchomp in its speed and attack. I haven't gotten enough bottlecaps yet to max out the IVs of the others.

So can someone give advice on which moves/pokemon to replace so I can defeat the primals? Those two are the only ones that give me so much trouble.

P.S. Please don't suggest legendaries. My goal is to defeat legendary using trainers in link battles and I won't be a hypocrite and use my own legendaries. Also EVs are not 100% accurate. They are just rough estimates of what I gave them

Comments

why ash greninja? cause he is only useful if u have water shuriken, I think it should have its hidden ability then it can change its typing

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For it's increased speed and special attack. Greninja is there to pick off weakened foes. My strategy is to put enemies on a timer with either toxic or leech seed + stealth rock and letting Greninja, Garchomp or Blaziken pick them off. Metagross sole role is to kill the fairies

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Gliscor is probably the best ground Pokemon at checking Groudon. Celesteela works if Groudon doesn't know any fire attacks.

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But which one should I replace with Gliscor?

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Replace Garchomp. Having 2 ground Pokemon with quadruple ice weaknesses is not good.

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I'll have to find a hidden ability gligar first before trying this. As much as I hate to replace my favorite pokemon, I wanna defeat the primals even more

Answer 1

Such an OU team.

Your team is honestly better suited for a rating battle rather than a Link battle. It simply is not suited for Open matches where there are no rules. The movesets are a little wierd too.

Using legendaries doesn't make you a hypocrite. It makes you a better trainer, because you use everything you can use to win.

However since you don't want legendaries, my suggestions are:

1. Specially defensive Ferrothorn completely dominates Primal Kyogre. It's considered to be the best check to it, even in Ubers.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Protect

This also dominates Lati@s, and deals with Mega Gengar. Watch out for Taunt and Fire type moves.

1. Change Garchomp's moveset. You're playing in a metagame where most Pokemon are at a speed tier of 90-100, meaning Garchomp doesn't need a scarf. The few Pokemon which outspeed scarfless Chomp are a bad matchup for Chomp anyway, such as Mewtwo and boosted Xerneas.

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Primarily checks Primal Groudon. Mind you, do not directly switch into a full health Pdon's attacks. Allows you to surprise pokemon they thought would OHKO it, and you retaliate with a powerful Outrage or Earthquake. Swords Dance if you need to when you predict a switch. Stone Edge is for Ho-oh and Lugia. Sticky web support allows you to maul the opponent's team after a Swords Dance, since the tier lacks good priority.

Other fun options you can try are Cloud Nine Golduck and Water absorb Quagsire.

Comments

dont forget storm drain slug (Forgot the name).

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To be honest I have some reasons on why I don't use legendaries. I actually swore to myself that I would never use legendaries after I beat my first pokemon game with just an overleveled starter and rayquaza and I have no intention of breaking this vow. Pokemon has a lot of sentimental value to me

Specially defensive ferrothorn? Won't that leave it wide open to physical attacks? Is scarfless Garchomp also good? I mean the legendary using trainers I encounter at about 85% of the time so there is still a good chance my opponent won't be using legendaries and as I mentioned, that 102 speed is not as scary as it once was. Oh and I was actually planning on using it in rating battles but it had no 6v6 so I had no choice but link battles

@Sythrus that's gastrodon. Honestly, I completely forgot about this thing. Gonna have to get myself one

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Gastrodon is mediocre, outside of checking Kyogre. Try Seismitoad or Quagsire. What physical Pokemon do you want to check with physically defensive Ferrothorn? Specially defensive Ferrothorn can soak up hits from Kyogre, and also stalls Lugia. Scarfless Garchomp isn't that bad, for above mentioned reasons.

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With Ferrothorn, I wanna check most dragon types. Since it has protect I can use it to see if they have fire type moves then switch out accordingly. The main reason is just to be safe. I mean this is free for all so I so there is no way to predict what my next opponent would use. For Kyogre, I actually think Gastrodon is a good pick. My problem with Kyogre so far is that it destroys Milotic with a single Thunder and I can't put it on a timer with Toxic. With Gastrodon Storm Drain, neither Thunder nor Origin Pulse will affect it so I think that is a good pick. I also think it is a good choice against that annoying Primal Groudon since ground is the only thing that hurts Groudon. It might not take it down, but it should be able to bring Groudon's hp low enough for one of my other pokemon to finish it off. And now that you mention it, I think I will give scarfless Garchomp a try. In all the time I have played against randoms, I have never encountered a pokemon that Garchomp doesn't outspeed

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That's what I've been saying. Unless you meet another scarfer, Garchomp's speed let's it outpace every single Banned legendary, other than Mewtwo. With a scarf, it will get one hit off and then die. With a sash it will survive a hit and retaliate, then die. It's almost the same result.

Since you want to check dragons without fire coverage using Ferrothorn, specially defensive Ferrothorn is better because most banned legendaries are special attackers (Palkia, Dialga, Kyurem-white etc). Mega Rayquaza and Zekrom are the only banned legendaries which are physical, and Ferrothorn wouldn't stand up to the former anyway.

I still recommend Ferrothorn because it can switch in on Dialga, Palkia, Yveltal, Xerneas, Lunala, Kyogre and some Mewtwo easily. Gastrodon is too one-dimensional.

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I just checked again. My ferrothorn actually has about 70% of 252 evs in special defense while the rest are on defense.  Would it be good if I replace Milotic with Gastrodon instead while still keeping Ferrothorn on the team?

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Put in Seismitoad instead of Gastrodon. Water Absorb is the better ability in singles, along with Stealth Rock.

I don't get why you won't use legendaries. In-game is different from competitive. In-game, you can spam the most broken pokemons and breeze through. In competitive, everything allowed is fair game because everyone has one purpose - to win. Amd the title legendary doesn't mean overpowered. Like how Mega-Salamence is better than Zekrom, or Blaziken is better than Moltres.

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Because it feels cheap. I am the kind of person who is into the lore of a game if it has one. In the pokemon lore, most if not all legendary pokemon are considered as deities and it feels cheap and unfair to use deities in battle. Regardless if they are that broken or not

Why exactly is water absorb better than storm drain?

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Just understand that to a competitive player, the stance of not using legendaries because of the game's lore is incredibly vexing. We could potentially give you advice that would help a lot, but you won't accept it because you're comfortable playing at an active disadvantage. That goes against the nature of competition.

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I know. That's just the way I am. In a game, lore is the very first thing I look at if it has one. I may be into competitive battling, but I'm not that hardcore that i would use everything at my disposal. Aside from the lore, I also have some other reasons I don't like using legendaries

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We rate your team to be its maximum best. If you're not allowing us to do that, then there's no need for this question.

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I'm not asking it to be the best like the very best. I am only asking for a good team without legendaries. Even that should possible although I am aware it won't be as good as with legendaries but that is my personal preference to this game