A Screenless HO?

Basically, currently I'm trying to run a Hyper Offensive team without screens. It's worked out relatively well so far.

I posted this in the Walrein Clan and decided to listen to Anti, and post it up here for more views and hopefully more help :)

@Lum Berry
Adamant
No Guard
240 HP / 248 Atk / 16 SpD / 4 Spe
~ DynamicPunch
~ Payback
~ Bullet Punch
~ Ice Punch

More or less just a powerful, tank-ish, Pokemon. I lead with him most of the time, though with team preview I often switch around my team, too. I'd say it's a 60-40 split, with Champ being the lead usually. DynamicPunch is great. Even if it's resisted, the confusion helps out a lot. Payback for pesky ghosts like Gengar (Champ can usually take a hit and then OHKO with Payback). Payback is my only dark move on the team however, and I often find myself with no answer to the annoying pixie thing. More or less I just keep attacking till it dies, which can take awhile.. I rely too much on confusion's hax, too..

@Life Orb
Adamant
Inner Focus
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
~ Swords Dance
~ Close Combat
~ ExtremeSpeed
~ Ice Punch

I love this guy :) If the situation allows, I have set up a single SD and proceeded to sweep a whole team with Lucario alone. I'm thinking of switching Ice Punch out for Crunch, since Payback on Machamp is my only other dark move on the team. By the same token, Ice Punch is my only Ice attack on the whole team.. I can deal with MS Dragonites with Haxorus, but Gliscor.. Extremespeed is just awesome. At +2, even a neutral Extremespeed will deal a chunk of damage to things like.. I can't think of the name right now, but I'm pretty sure it's another one of those stupid pixie things.

@Life Orb
Adamant
Technician
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
~ Swords Dance
~ Bullet Punch
~ Superpower
~ Bug Bite

Like, seriously? Do I really need to give you an explanation for this guy? He's Scizor. That's all you need to know.

@Life Orb
Adamant
Moxie
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~ Dragon Dance
~ Waterfall
~ Stone Edge
~ Earthquake

Another great Poke. He's kind of like my clutch player. When all else fails, send out Gyarados and pray for the best. Bulky enough to take a hit and DD up. After which, you better hide. Because this guy has decimated entire teams in 7 turns.. After a DD and a KO, hell, after a DD, Gyarados will usually OHKO whatever is sent in against it. From there on, the other team is pretty much dead, since with every passing turn, Gyarados just becomes that much stronger.

@Lum Berry
Adamant
Mold Breaker
36 HP / 252 Atk / 220 Spe
~ Dragon Dance
~ Outrage
~ Earthquake
~ Brick Break

I needed an Electric resist for synergy with Gyarados.. But Haxorus has not disappointed whatsoever. What a monster. After a Dragon Dance, he is scary. Very scary. Great coverage. Hits hard.

@Lum Berry
Adamant
Multiscale
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
~ Dragon Dance
~ Outrage
~ Fire Punch
~ Earthquake

My favorite Pokemon since RBY. With 5th Gen, looks like he's finally getting the recognition he deserves :D On a serious note, he is just as good, if not better than Haxorus late game. While Haxorus isn't hurt as much by Stealth Rocks, if the opponent uses Spikes instead, or only has Spikes/Toxic Spikes up, Dragonite isn't affected at all. Very useful indeed. Outrage hits everything but Steel hard. Fire Punch for Steels and Ices. Earthquake mostly for Heatran and a second powerful attack that doesn't lock me in. I'm considering testing out Extremespeed, though, because setting up, sweeping, and then getting taken out by a priority move is annoying.. But it's still fun seeing a Heatran sent in to wall me, expecting me to carry Extremespeed, only to die on the spot.


I'm not sure if I've told you guys this but I usually prefer to not use legendaries. But I'm just about ready to suck up my pride and chuck a Terrakion on the team if someone suggests so haha

Click to expand...

So far I've gotten the following suggestion from ShinySalamence888:
I'm a little skeptical about this because of the way HO teams function in general. If I can get past that physical wall, it'll pretty much render the opponent's special wall, if they carry one, useless.

I've also gotten these suggestions from Anti:
I don't like the concept of a Choiced Pokemon on an HO team since it revolves around minimal switching. I had a decent dual-screener in Azelf, but I've just found that straight attacking, attacking, and then attacking again fits my style the best. I've found more success on the PO server with this team than I did with the same team, but with Machamp swapped for Azelf. I'm not sure what he meant by priority and Gyarados, though haha

Like, Anti said, defensively, I'm lacking. But I also attribute that to the fact that I always try to set up on an almost dead Pokemon, instead of just killing it with priority and then going from there.. I'd say Skarmory is the bane of this team so far, from what I've experienced. Dragonite and Gyarados are my only true counters to it, and neither can kill it with one hit, even after a single boost. If I manage to get two boosts up on either before Skarmory comes in, I'm usually fine. But yeah.. otherwise I just have to keep sacrificing Pokemon and let it use that annoying Whirlwind to mess with my stat boosts..

Perhaps a spinner would be nice as well, considering both Dragonite and Gyarados have a weakness for SR, and you don't have a poison type to absorb Toxic Spikes, meaning that opponents will try to stall your team, though that only applies for Machamp and Haxorus. Still, phazers could be troublesome. I'd say that Starmie is the best solution for this, since Starmie can spin and has BoltBeam + Surf to do quite some damage.

When you have a spinner, you might want to consider a Sash on Gyarados to save him from Stone Edge and any electric attack.

Thanks for being the first person to respond! :)

I've considered putting a spinner on the team and have tried out Starmie. The problem is, with even a single Special Attacker on the field, especially one that can't boost its power, the opponent can go ahead and throw in a Blissey and force me to switch, which an HO team does not appreciate. Hell, I don't even switch when the opponent sends in a fire type against Scizor, even though I probably should.

The other RSer I've considered is Donphan but.. Donphan he's average at best and really it just takes up a roster spot. Thoughts on this?

HO NEEDS a screener or it loses to everything plus you cant set up at all on even weak things like walls and beat common counters behind screens and as thus overwhelm the opponent which is what HO does, which is really defeating the purpose of the team tbh. Put one over the rather random Machamp.

Brick Break is garbage on non Choice Haxorus, use Swords Dance so you can shred through walls and offense alike with dual dance. Dual Dance is arguably the things best set.

So I decided to listen to both of you. I put a Donphan (for Physical moves instead of Special) on the team in place of Lucario. Then I replaced Machamp with the old Azelf set I used. And then I switched Haxorus from a Dragon Dance set to a Double Dance set. I've had pretty good success. Donphan gives me a second Stealth Rocker, so I can not worry about that with Azelf, letting me set up the screens more easily.

Here's a battle I just had, where I accidentally clicked Stealth Rocks instead of Reflect, but it doesn't matter, and you'll see why :)



All I can say is that Haxorus is.. I don't even know. But thanks for suggesting the moveset haha