TEAM ZYFLAIR
Now, I'm sure you're wondering what this "Eevee Cup" is. For those of you who are confused, it is a tournament in Japan that will be happening soon. The rules are that of a flat rotation battle, except only Eevee, Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Umbreon, Espeon, Leafeon, and Glaceon may be used on your team. This is a team I put together with the help of many people in the Pokebeach chat (Thanks, guys~).THE TEAM
THE PROCESS
So, we didn't really know where to start the team off. We had thrown out ideas of single Pokemon, such as Jolteon, but nothing that was actually a team. In the end, we had decided on a few Pokemon, but started the detailed stuff with Flareon. It's a good physical attacker, despite having close to no movepool. However, in a tier this small, it's movepool is all it needs.
Next up was a special attacker. At this point, we had decided on a rain-based team, despite having Flareon (he doesn't get any good fire moves anyway
). Jolteon is the fastest Pokemon allowed in the Eevee Cup, and it hits hard, especially with Thunder (and it's great accuracy in the rain).
After Jolteon, we needed something to set up the rain. Obviously, a defensive Pokemon is going to work better for this, especially in a rotation battle (don't listen to me, I don't do rotation battles.) We picked out both Vaporeon and Umbreon, since they were the more defensive Pokemon in the oh-so-small available group (apart from Eviolite Eevee, but lol.) We agreed that one should be offensive and one defensive, but we didn't know which. In the end, we decided that Umbreon should be the offensive one, with Curse being his main focus. That left Vaporeon as the defensive Pokemon to set up the rain.
Leafeon is mainly here because a) Swords Dance X-Scissor hits both Umbreon and Espeon hard, while Leaf Blade hits Vaporeon. And b) If someone has a sun-based team, Leafeon can outspeed and demolish most of it. That's pretty much all there is here. Power, power, and some speed.
The last decision was between Eevee, Espeon, and Glaceon. Espeon had Calm Mind going for it, while Eevee could do insane damage with Normal Gem Last Resort (don't ask). However, Glaceon was our choice here because it can outspeed Leafeon, Espeon, and Modest Jolteon with a Choice Scarf. This lets it hit just about everything with its great 130 base Special Attack.
IN-DEPTH
Zyflair / Flareon @ Toxic Orb
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
Guts
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-Protect
-Flame Charge
-Superpower
-Facade
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
Guts
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-Protect
-Flame Charge
-Superpower
-Facade
So, you can't have Team Zyflair without Zyflair, right? Guts seemed better than Flash Fire in the Eevee Cup (I wonder why), so it's a physically offensive set with Facade. Protect is to help the Toxic Orb activate, if needed. The rest of the attacks are really just there because they're the only good attacks Flareon gets. Flame Charge is used over Fire Fang because a +1 Flareon can outspeed Jolly Leafeon (176 Speed vs 161). So yeah, not much else to say about this guy. The rain won't really hinder him much, since Flame Charge is more for the speed raise than actual damage, although it does get a 2HKO on Leafeon outside of rain.
Strozier / Jolteon @ Air Balloon
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
Volt Absorb
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Thunder
-Hidden Power [Ground]
-Signal Beam
-Substitute
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
Volt Absorb
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Thunder
-Hidden Power [Ground]
-Signal Beam
-Substitute
So, the first thing you might be wondering about this Jolteon is "Why Modest instead of Timid?" Well, Modest Jolteon outspeeds every Pokemon allowed in the tournament unless it has a Choice Scarf (in which case everything outspeeds it). Timid Jolteon is only able to outspeed Scarf'd Base 65s. The 248 Special Attack EVs allow it to still get max Special Attack (due to being Lv50 with 30 IVs in Special Attack for HP Ground), while letting 8 EVs be put into Special Defense to actually get a point there (once again, 30 IVs for HP Ground). Substitute is for easing prediction when rotating it in. Thunder will always hit in the rain, and it'll hit hard. The only problem with spamming it everywhere is other Jolteons' Volt Absorb. Hidden Power Ground allows Jolteon to hit other Jolteons hard, and Signal Beam hits 3 of the 8 usable Pokemon for Super-Effective damage. Air Balloon allows Jolteon to attack without worrying about opposing Jolteon using Hidden Power Ground to hit it back.
gamercal / Vaporeon @ Damp Rock
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
Hydration
252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
-Rest
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Rain Dance
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
Hydration
252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
-Rest
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Rain Dance
You obviously can't have a Rain team without something to set up the Rain (unless you're crazy and rely on your opponent...). Vaporeon is here to do exactly that - take hits and set up Rain Dance. Damp Rock will extend the time Rain is active from 5 turns to 8 turns, giving Jolteon more time to attack with Thunder and not worry. Hydration + Rest also allows Vaporeon to stay healthy, since it'll be playing the role of a tank. The EVs look kinda strange, and they definitely took the most thought. Originally, Vaporeon was planned to be Bold with 20 Def / 236 SpD. We changed to Calm with the current EV spread since it gives the same Defense stat of 91, allowing Vaporeon to survive a Leaf Blade from Adamant 252 Atk Leafeon (assuming no Critical Hit). The rest of the EVs were put into Special Defense to help Vaporeon take Jolteon's hits (Modest Thunder cannot OHKO), and with the Calm Nature, it gets 10 more points of SpD than it would have with Bold. The attacks are pretty standard on Vaporeon. Ice Beam was chosen over Signal Beam due to its higher base power.
Umbroken / Umbreon @ Leftovers
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SpA)
Synchronize
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
-Curse
-Wish
-Protect
-Payback
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SpA)
Synchronize
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
-Curse
-Wish
-Protect
-Payback
So, this Umbreon is kinda self-explanatory. Payback hits pretty much everything hard, and CM Espeon harder. Umbreon isn't going to be outspeeding anything in the first place, so Curse lowering its Speed isn't going to hurt one bit. The Attack boost, however, might hurt... the opponent. EVs are for max Special Defense, since Signal Beam is going to be Umbreon's main counter. The only other things are Superpower Flareon and X-Scissor Leafeon. Both of those will do less damage due to Curse raising Defense, though, so yeah. Curse Umbreon will probably end up being popular in Eevee Cup.
? / Leafeon @ Lum Berry
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
Chlorophyll
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Swords Dance
-Leaf Blade
-X-Scissor
-Return
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
Chlorophyll
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Swords Dance
-Leaf Blade
-X-Scissor
-Return
Leafeon is a great physical attacker, having 110 base Attack and Swords Dance. After +2, he'll be denting Curse Umbreon quite nicely, especially since SD will set up Attack boosts quicker than Curse can set up Defense boosts. Leaf Blade will hit Vaporeon hard, while X-Scissor takes care of Espeon, Umbreon, and opposing Leafeons. Jolly nature doesn't actually allow Leafeon to outspeed anything, it's simply in case Leafeon has to fight off another Leafeon. Given the fact that Leafeon will probably be the best Leafeon counter (apart from the occasional Burn), it's not too unlikely. Speaking of Burn, Lum Berry kinda gets rid of those. Chlorophyll will allow Leafeon to absolutely screw over any team trying to use Sun, since he'll easily outspeed everything on their team. Most of the time, Chlorophyll Leafeon is probably going to be running an Adamant Nature if he's planning on Sun boosting his Speed, so this Leafeon will even outspeed those.
PMJ / Glaceon @ Choice Scarf
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
Snow Cloak
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Ice Beam
-Signal Beam
-HP Water
-Shadow Ball
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
Snow Cloak
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Ice Beam
-Signal Beam
-HP Water
-Shadow Ball
As stated earlier, Timid Choice Scarf Glaceon will outspeed any unboosted Pokemon except for Timid Jolteon. However, Timid Jolteon probably won't be too common due to outspeeding everything else that's unboosted. Ice Beam is for STAB over Blizzard due to accuracy, and it still has enough power coming off of 130 base Special Attack to OHKO Leafeon and dent anything else pretty nicely. Signal Beam hits Super Effective on Umbreon and Espeon, while Shadow Ball will hit Espeon slightly harder if you don't have to worry about Umbreon or Eevee switching into it. The last move might seem strange, but it was the best option we could find after thinking about it. Our original choice was Hidden Power Ground to hit Jolteon and Flareon for Super Effective damage. We then changed to Hidden Power Rock for Flareon and opposing Glaceons. After my suggestion of Hidden Power Water (partly due to us forgetting about the Rain), we kept it as the type of Hidden Power to use. It still hits Flareon Super Effectively, while having 105 Base Power on anything else due to the Rain. Even better, the IVs dropped to 30 don't affect the stats AT ALL.
NOTES
No threats list because honestly, this team will have an entire 8 Pokemon to prepare for. That's smaller than most threat lists to begin with. I also haven't gotten to test this team out yet, but once I breed and train the Eevees, I'll start doing some battles on Random Matchup. Also, Leafeon still needs a nickname. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for reading~By the way, if anyone was wondering, artwork is by PEARL7.
