Ralkers CCFl4 Team

	Hey people Im Ralker and this was the first time I had ever really tried to do a core challenge or use flying in general. Im going to go in detail about the sets I used since quite a few of them were unconventional or just plain odd. The 2 required mons were landorus-therain and moltres. While landorus-therian is quite common on flying, moltres is outclassed almost entirely by the better fire/flying type charizard, which left me in a difficult position while teambuilding.


Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Atk / 200 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Moltres @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- U-turn

Thundurus-Therian @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Drill Peck

Altaria @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Roost
- Heal Bell
- Hyper Voice
- Flamethrower

Gyarados @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang

Landorus-Therian: Probably my favorite mon on the entire team. Sub/Bulk Up lando is such a good and efficient way to counter both rock and electric teams and to an extent ice. The way to use sub/bulk up lando is to switch in on a wall or a mon that cant touch lando. Then on the switch set up the substitute and continue to either bulk up or attack behind the safety of the substitute. If they don't switch then you can use them as set up fodder to begin a sweep. The ev spread focuses mostly on hp and special defense since those 2 stats wont get boosted by bulk up, with a little in attack to make sure it can deal damage without having to set up. Once this thing sets up its very difficult to take down.

Moltres: The second mon of the core, and probably the most difficult mon to make a set for. Moltres is a charizard wanna be which made it difficult to build with. Charizard gets better coverage, has higher speed and special attack, and has access to 2 megas. So with charizard usually being ran offensive I decided to run a defensive moltres at first. The first set had defog, willo, roost, and flamethrower. This set didn't work out for me though because in order to get rid of rocks I had to switch in and take 50%. I went back to the drawing board and sat down to think about what moltres could do that charizard couldn't. I immediately thought that since charizard required a megastone to be viable id run an item on moltres that would let it surpass charizard. With base 90 speed it wasn't a good potential scarfer, though not the best. Fire blast and hurricane provide strong stab moves, hp grass for mons like gastrodon, seismitoad, and quagsire, and U-turn to provide initiative. I figured this was the best I was going to get and stuck with it.

Thundurus-Therian: The electric genie himself. When I originally made the team I used the standard choice scarf on thundy, but when defensive moltres failed me I had to switch the item because I personally don't like running 2 scarfers. There was life orb, which is also used quite often on thundurus, but I didn't like the idea of taking residual damage because thundurs doesn't have the best defenses at 79/70/80. I figured that choice specs would provide the damage output I was looking for without the cost of some hp, and with base 101 speed to back it up I decided to go for it. Many times people were caught off guard by the damage output specs thundy was doing, forcing them to needlessly switch and sack things off.

Skarmory: Without moltres to be my defensive wall/defogger I immediately went to skarmory. With the ability to set up rocks and to get rid of them too was a great asset to my team. Skarmory was also a great check to physical attackers in general, especially weavile, bisharp and mamoswine. I ran drill peck over brave bird just to avoid taking recoil damage.

Mega Altaria: The team started coming along but what I lacked was a mega. Already having moltres I avoided both mega charizards, which only left a few options, being aerodactyl, altaria, and mega gyarados. I chose mega altaria over the others because I needed something that could act as a special wall. When i compared the weaknesses it shared with my physical wall, skarmory, i realized that they covered eachothers weaknesses perfectly. Skarmory resists/is neutral to the fairy, poison, ice, and steel type attacks that mega altaria is week to, and mega altaria resists the fire and electric attacks skarmorys weak too, so it seemed like a perfect pair to me. Also when most people see mega altaria they think of the offensive dragon dance set, so I used this as an advantage to lure out mons like ferrothorn out. Hyper voice was for stab, and roost/heal bell were there to keep the team healthy and to make sure mega alt could stick around longer.

Gyarados: The final mon on the team. This was my main counter to genesect and other mons that like to spam ice beam due to gyarados' natural special bulk. Life orb was there to power up my attacks even more, and although it is a dragon dance set, I rarely found myself ever setting up with it. I would rather just set up with landorus instead.

Threats/Pains:

Bisharp: When I started getting high on the ladder I kept running into more and more teams with bisharp which ultimately caused in a tilt. Once skarmory is gone bisharp has a field day with the remaining portion of the team, with dual intimidate to raise its attack thanks to defiant. In hindsight I should've ran enough speed evs to outspeed adamant bisharp at least, but sucker punch is still there to do a hefty amount and it all comes down to mind games.

Fast things that can spam bolt/beam coverage: Mons like starmie or even genesect that aren't choiced into either tbolt or ice beam can be quite problematic. With them being able to alternate between the 2 moves neutralizes gyarados' ability to check ice beam, and altaria/thundurs/landorus' ability to check thunderbolt.

Stealth rocks: Although I have skarmory there as a defogger rocks are still an annoying pain to this team. If skarmory goes down then the team is constantly getting health whittled away, even if skarmory is still alive I sometimes found it difficult to get skarmory in to defog.

Weavile: Its a fast strong ice type what else is there to explain.