Crimson's CCGr5 Team

Alrighty, Crimson Torrent I am. Self proclaimed best grass type user. Haha. I literally only use grass types so once I noticed the next grass core challenge was up and running, I finally decided it was about time I participated and luckily the two pokemon required were two Pokemon I had used often before. I basically used my main grass team and just modified it as time went on. The difficult part was reincorporating Celebi back into the team I had. Giving up on Pokemon that have proved to be so useful, such as Shiftry and Gourgeist, in order to accommodate the changes that Celebi made to the team was heartbreaking, but in the end the team really pulled together and I had a lot of fun using it.

Leafy Greens (Venusaur) (M) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Portabella (Breloom) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Rock Tomb
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance

Cray-Cray (Cradily) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Curse
- Recover

Barbara (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Knock Off

Cream Puff (Whimsicott) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Encore
- Moonblast
- Giga Drain
- Tailwind

Chao (Celebi) @ Choice Band
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Zen Headbutt
- U-turn
- Healing Wish


Venusaur: Of course. The best grass type in existence, so how can you not include him/her? Mega Venusaur, in my opinion, is necessary for Grass to reach high ladder at this point in time. Everyone already knows it's bulky and can eat hits for days, and with Grass's many weaknesses, Venusaur's bulk is life saving. Although I don't run an entirely defensive Venusaur. Max HP (or nearly) is plenty to bulk hits from the majority of Pokemon and then max SpA allows him to hit back even harder. Giga Drain gives him that extra recovery combined with synthesis to keep him going for a long time. Sludge Bomb hits incredibly hard, and often poisons the pokemon for that residual damage (it's basically the poison type scald). Hidden Power Fire is there, of course, to deal with steel type threats like Skarmory and other Ferrothorns and is basically a mandatory move to have somewhere on the team. Venusaur effectively walls fairy, water, rock, and other grass teams nearly all on his own and then some. I freakin' love him. Oh, and that 8 in speed, by the way, is there to outspeed the occasional togekiss that doesn't have speed investments.

Breloom: 1st part of the core. Oh my god...the bae. This pokemon has pulled me through so many tight spots, it's not even funny. You'd expect a frail Pokemon to only do so much, but damn she certainly does not go down without a fight. Breloom is capable of sweeping ice, dark, rock, and normal teams with just one swords dance and mach punching away. Well as long as you take out the ghost types first if there are any. Bullet Seed is absent because, as a grass team, the grass offensive can be provided else where and Swords Dance and Spore prove to be more beneficial. Rock tomb comes in extremely handy, even on 'mons you wouldn't expect. That speed drop gives Breloom the chance to finish up on the next turn, because it hits like a fucking truck. Before starting monotype, I never thought much of Breloom, but now it's easily one of my absolute favorite Pokemon.

Cradily: A monster. Bulks hits so well and especially after setting up. Then can hit just as hard. Having Rock on the team comes in so handy for Grass because Rock covers 4/5 of grass's typical weaknesses and 3/5 defensively. It pairs perfectly with Ferrothorn and Venusaur for total defensive coverage. Cradily helps take care of major threats like Char Y and Volcarona w/o having to go as far as wasting Breloom's sash. Plus it has access to earthquake. Having a ground type move is absolutely necessary unless you want to lose every time Heatran hits the field and it's extremely useful against steel teams in general.

Ferrothorn: A physical attackers worst nightmare. Rocky Helmet/Iron Barbs puts in far more work than you'd expect, and with leech seed recovery, even more so. Ferrothorn is the most important wall on a grass team. It covers all of Grass's weaknesses defensively except for fire. It easily eats attacks from both of Mega Venusaur's weaknesses also. And once again, rock covers 4/5 of grass's weaknesses, so getting stealth rocks set up is extremely handy when faced w/ a disadvantage. Against fire though, just don't bother. Ferro is basically just fodder. Knock off is just a useful move in general, but I often run T-wave on Ferro as well. And since it's slow af, Gyro ball hits for massive damage. It can be really useful for Kyurem-Black, Hoopa-U, and other scarfed/fast 'mons.

Whimsicott: Oh what an angel. We all know Whimsi is just a blessing, right? It's a set-up 'mons most devoted cheerleader. Scizor, you just keep on groovin'. One day, you'll be a star! lol. But anyways, ever since Mega Sableye was introduced, there have been only 2 efficient ways to counter it. Life Orb Whimsicott and Serperior. Whimsi's speed, fairy typing, and prankster ability has made him more preferable though. Basically he's a speedy attacker who likes to cause some shenanigans on the side with tailwind coming in handy against any remaining scarfed 'mons and encore devastating support and set up 'mons. Having as many 'mons as possible that resist fighting is a huge help to Cradily and Ferrothorn too.

Celebi: The 2nd part of the core. Celebi can be ran in numerous ways, but what i ended with was a choice banded physical attacker. To be honest, there were plenty of times where I had used a specially bulky celebi and a scarfed celebi, but the banded one is what got me up to 1569 in the end. The hard hitting physical attacker is quite unexpected of celebi and can catch people off guard. It hits decently hard and can sponge any expected status ailments w/ natural cure. U-turn can give you the momentum of the battle and helped quite a lot against psychic teams. Then if Celebi starts to get low, healing wish can put ferrothron, cradily, or venusaur back in the game if they've suffered too much.


Major Threats:
As far as teams go,
Flying is the biggest threat. Flying has too much variety and power. With Skarmory, Gliscor and Zapdos sponging hits, and Char Y, Landorus, and Togekiss dealing them out, it's incredibly difficult to overcome. Predictions HAVE to be on point and even then, winning is difficult. Breloom's rock tomb can prove useful against a lot of flying types, but he usually only gets one shot. skarm bulks hits from breloom and even if you spore it, skarm usually can wake up quickly enough to take breloom out before breloom can take it out. And if you swap breloom out, the rocks usually come up and then breloom's sash is useless. On the plus side, Breloom usually outspeeds Zapdos, so it can serve as a good counter to that. Cradily can often put in some work here too, but it takes time to set up and you have to watch out for potential toxic. Mega Venusaur is the only one who really handles skarmory well, but hidden power fire is often predictable and it takes 2 to KO as is.

Fire teams can also be a nuissance. Fire has too much speed and power over grass. Breloom's sash comes in extremely important and can take care of frailer fire types or those who are 4x weak to rock. Then mach punch can come in handy on 'mons like Darmanitan. Cradily and Mega Venusaur are incredibly important since they bulk hits the best, but Char Y is still a threat to venusaur, and often Cradily isn't offered enough time to take hits from strong physical attackers. Whimsi's tailwind can come in handy here, but it only last so long and you usually only get one use before whimsi dies. Ferro of course doesn't provide much use at all unless you somehow manage to get rocks up, and then Celebi is mostly only good at taking out certain 'mons that have been weakened. The tailwind really helps Celebi the most, but Celebi doesn't offer any super effective damage on anyone other than Infernape.

Individual threats include:
Togekiss - Scarfed, Flinch Haxing Bitch
Victini - Scarfed V-create. Also a Bitch.
Hawlucha - You can't let it sub or swords dance. Who ever is in against it is attacking. usually losing at least 1 team member.
Skarmory/Heatran - Individually they aren't so bad, but together they cause huge problems since they're immune to each other's weaknesses and since Mega Venusaur and Cradily are the only good options to take either of them out.
Gliscor - This team just doesn't have a good counter to it. Whimsi and Venu don't quite hit hard enough to kill and, upon set up, they aren't lasting long. Stun spore is something I run on Whimsi sometimes too, so if you can predict the switch to gliscor, it's a good option. It just rarely ever occurs.
Mega-Sableye - If Whimsi goes down, this thing can run house.


So, umm....Yeah. That's all I got coming to mind atm. Sorry if anything wasn't explained well. You can often find me in the Monotype room if you have questions.