Giratina, etc.

[Phoenixsong]

Yeah. I was bored, so I decided to make up some kinda weirdish themed teams based on various junk. Then I thought it'd be cool to theme teams around some of the big, scary legendaries, using that legendary and then five other non-legendary Pokémon. (Of course, that makes the Kyogre team not fun because that means no Manaphy--and I have such a good one!--no Suicune and no Palkia, but eh.) Not for use against anyone who doesn't want to fight ubers, of course.

Anyway, the Giratina team, titled "Nocturne" because I'm lame like that, is the one I'm currently focusing on; it's Ghost/Dark/Psychic/Poison, currently, but I may have to add something else in there to make the types balance out more. I'd rather be focusing on a Standard team, but I've got such a block right now that I can't. So, uh, yeah. The other five members are kinda up in the air--I was thinking something like Drapion, Gallade, Weavile/CSAbsol, maybe a Spiritomb, Umbreon or Metagross in there somewhere--but as I can't decide on anything other than Drapion (with Sniper and a crit-up item or maybe as an annoyer) and probably Gallade, for now I present to you my Giratina, because I have such a perty one anyway.

Giratina @ Leftovers
Calm Nature, 252 HP/118 Def/140 SA
Minimum Final Stats: 482 HP/207 Atk/290 Def/270 SA/298 SD/210 Spd
-Protect/Dragon Pulse/Dark Pulse/Shadow Ball/Shadow Force
-Aura Sphere
-Will-O-Wisp
-Calm Mind

More or less, Calm Mind it up until it's untouchable, Will-O-Wisp to compensate for the fact that there's no Defense boost and to force switches/be irritating, Aura Sphere as primary means of attack. Protect buys it extra time with Lefties and is fun with Pressure, Dragon Pulse or Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse (not sure which) basically for Ghosts (and Psychics/Dragons), and... probably won't use Shadow Force, as with 207 Attack it's weaksauce and also can't hit Normals, but it can still hit Ghosts and is kind of a free Protect that might also cause damage. Eh, yeah, not that great an idea (it was better before I remembered it was physical and not special). I might also consider Heal Block so other things have trouble outstalling it, and maybe Draco Meteor, but that's probably not worth it. Oh, and maybe Earth Power. I really don't know. I guess I could also replace Will-O-Wisp with Protect, as WOW isn't really necessary and is just annoying and fun. Eh, maybe I should. (And there's Ominous Wind, which also doesn't cost me a hard-to-replace TM... I need to stop now, I'm confusing myself.)

Barring my indecision about the first slot, the only real problem I can see this having is a Calm Mind Blissey with Ice Beam, and even then as long as I can get in a few Calm Minds before Blissey shows up that shouldn't be too much of a problem, should it? (And if it is, well, that's what Gallade is for, my lovelies. Close Combat = BlisseyDIE.) Oh, and Roar/Whirlwind/whatever, but those suck in general. It's not a Cradily, so whaddayagonnadoaboutit anyway? Roar screws everything over.

Eh, yeah. So, thoughts on my Giratina? Suggestions for the other members of my team? Free food? Anyone?

[Perfect Chaos]

Well, not sure about the Giratina set.

As for other members, yeah, go with Drapion. I say also go with Spiritomb as he does help symbolize the "Nocturne" theme.

On top of the theme, might I recommend using Darkrai instead of Giratina? He's one legend that definitely reminds me of "Nocturne" and he's also a Dark-type. His movepool is also pretty good too.

Darkrai

Dark Void
Dark Pulse
Calm Mind
Substitute/Taunt/Aerial Ace

If you go with Aerial Ace, give it a Rash nature. Other than that, stick with Modest obviously lol.

Hmm...not sure what else you should use. Maybe Gengar/Dusknoir, they're good Ghost Pokemon that also remind me of "Nocturne"

Good luck with that and hope it helps.

[Phoenixsong]

The thing about Darkrai is, a) I want to wait until I can get one legally, and who knows how long that'll take o.O *stupidNintendocough*, and b) I only want one uber (really only one legendary) on the team. I probably will go with Spiritomb if I can find a good one, though. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Negrek]

I'm curious as to what sort of environment you plan on using this Giratina set in. OU? Will other people be using some ubers? Is this for the uber environment, where you'll be seeing virtually all ubers? I find it very hard to pick attacks and put together a pokémon build unless I know what I'm going to be up against, roughly. For example, in the uber metagame, calm mind bliss is more or less standard and you should be worried about it; however, if you're looking at primarily OU, it's much less common and you shouldn't have to sacrifice moveslots to handle it.

[Phoenixsong]

Eh, really, it's more for semi-casual play than anything; I mean, the rest of the team wasn't going to go much lower than BL, if it goes below BL at all, but obviously with a Giratina in it I can't call it BL, can I? I suppose, depending on what I choose, it would probably average out to OU or something, but I guess you could call it uber. *shrug* Again, it depends on the rest of the team I end up choosing, but chances are I wouldn't take this in against a team of six legendaries. Something like three ubers, though, I'd be more willing to deal with. So I dunno. I was just looking for an opportunity to use the Giratina with awesome stats I was lucky enough to catch.

[Negrek]

'Kay, well... I guess I'll try to look at this in general then.

First, I'm interested that you say you want aura sphere as your primary means of attack. Why that, rather than a STAB attack like shadow ball or dragon pulse? It could surprise tyranitar or blissey, either of whom could switch into this, I suppose, but other than that I'm not really seeing it. Without any calm minds and assuming standard blissey (no special defense, max HP), you're looking at a maximum twenty-ish percent damage to the blob; it takes four calm minds before you can expect to 2HKO with that attack. Ubers bliss tends to run more special defense and would consequently be harder to kill with aura sphere. Tyranitar, of course, croaks instantly, as does weavile, which is another potential threat.

In general, I suggest that you make your first attack another attack-attack to improve your coverage. With just aura sphere, you are easily handled by any other ghost, who can absorb the attack easily. If you were going to keep aura sphere, I think your best bet overall would probably be dragon pulse, because although dragons ordinarily wouldn't want to switch into Giratina, once you realize that you only have aura sphere, salamence and dragonite, especially, are pretty fearless and, because you're not running much standard defense, you really need to watch out. Most salamence will 2HKO with a dragon claw even with no boosts, although you can wisp them, and draco meteor will OHKO you off a standard specsmence unless you've got a couple calm minds in there. In general, though, most things can't survive more than a couple aura spheres after a few calm mind boosts unless they're resistant, unless you're talking about other ubers, and they'll have difficulty hurting you back, although striking off the weaker standard defense can still cause some pain. Will-o-wisp, however, does work nicely against most such beasts.

Your EV spread seems a little strange; again with the 140 special attack that I'm not sure what it's there for, but it should give whatever attack(s) you pick a little more bite, I guess. Giratina should buff defenses before HP because it starts at a higher HP level and EV's provide more benefit to lower stats. If you want to keep the 140 special attack and continue to bias EV's totally towards defense, the best spread is 116 HP, 252 Def; if you want the best overall protection on both physical and special sides to start out with, it's 252 HP, 100 Def, 16 S Def.

In general, Giratina is a scary beast, especially in OU and below, where there's not much with enough power to threaten a 2HKO that isn't going to eat will-o-wisp. Should be a fun set to use, but again, I'd really suggest going for two attacks in there rather than something like protect in the last slot, or else you're going to get walled easily by something that resists whatever you pick, unless most of their team has been destroyed or they happen not to be carrying a pokémon that can resist it. Your worst enemy is probably going to be status, especially toxic, as this version of Giratina has no way to heal itself. Possibly including something with aromatherapy or heal bell would help to keep Giratina alive longer, with a wish umbreon to provide refreshers of HP if necessary. I'm not really sure that there's anything that really fits your theme that gets aromatherapy or heal bell, though.