[OU RMT] Changing Currents

uh oh! awful title! zap zap zap. okay, this is the first team i have actually worked on properly, and i now have time to battle (so, my return to battling!). well, i've been using this time for oh...about a week. i have barely changed much from the original version except a few moves and i did try one replacement. i'm pretty impressed by the team's success, but it still has a few flaws and threats.




Rotom-W @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 160 HP / 160 SAtk / 188 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick

rotom is my usual lead for scouting, and then after a volt switch i go to jirachi since it beats majority of the pokémon that rotom loses against. hidden power fire is for ferrothorn, which gives my team some problems so i have to lure it. rotom is my switch in for stuff like heatran, jellicent, starmie, etc. evs are simple, speed is to outrun modest heatran, specs chandelure, jolly scizor, bulky dd nite, agiligross, ss cloyster, etc. the rest is split between hp and spa. i originally had mienshao in rotom's place, but i found too many threats and replaced it with rotom (rotom also gives the team more useful resistances).


Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SDef / 40 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Wish
- Stealth Rock

jirachi is my go-to guy if rotom has trouble. jirachi is my only dragon resist, and handles latios for me. it spreads paralysis, heals my team, and even sets up stealth rock. i thought jirachi wouldn't be as good without protect, but it still has been amazing. and almost always gets sr up every battle.


Scrafty (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Hi Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

scrafty was the pokémon that started this team; the team's late-game sweeper. scrafty takes advantage of tyranitar and ferrothorn's popularity, and once a few threats like skarm are out of the way, it can sweep teams very well. the original idea was to use meinshao to lure in gliscor, so that scrafty can use taunt instead of ice punch. but with rotom replacing mienshao, i'm using ice punch now.


Gliscor (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Taunt

gliscor comes in on pokémon that causes scrafty problems, such as skarm, hippo (though i have to watch out for ice fang), fighting-types, etc. gliscor is my check for excadrill, jirachi, ferrothorn (kinda), and so on. speed evs are to outspeed that huge 244 speed tie, and outruns tormentran.


Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psyshock

latios switches in on stuff like rotom-w that gliscor has problems with. latios adds some extra offensive power to the team. psychoke is for blissey, and a second stab move without having to lower latios' spa.


Haxorus (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rivalry
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dual Chop
- Brick Break

haxorus helps deal with some threats that team couldn't handle like thundurus. haxorus is my revenge killer, and is very strong as well (something that doesn't usually mix with a scarf pokémon). it also works as a second cleaner is scrafty fainted. rivalry helps boost haxorus' attack, since it doesn't have cb or lo. dual chop is really useful for stuff like sub disable gengar or anti's sub thundurus.


Threats
the only ones i can remember having trouble with

- kingdra in rain can be a problem, i can't outspeed or do anything to it. only thing i can try to do is paralyze it with jirachi, but they always have lum berry. dd kingdra can be revenge killed by haxorus, but otherwise i can still have problems. jirachi can still come in on outrages, but it gets weakened down and it can take a few turns to paralyze with the 60% chance and the possibility of lum.

- volcarona looks like a big threat, but the ones that i have battled never got a chance to set up. ;(


Export to Text
if you want to use this for some reason


i have jirachi as the lead, but swap with rotom in team preview for tricking the opponent. woop.

My only suggestion is Drain Punch over Hi Jump Kick on Scrafty, especially since you are running Life Orb on him. I don't think you'll miss the extra power too much, even less so once Scrafty has an attack boost or two under his pants.

Nice team!
Umm, Kingdra in the rain with Swift Swim is currently banned unless your opponent wants to be a gigantic a-hole and plays it anway. Also I suppose you can´t get around if THEY aren´t the ones bringing Drizzle. I suppose your only choice in that case is hope & prey they have Sniper on it but...who does?

Everything else has been said already. Drain Punch > Hi Jump Kick on Scrafty any day, and I assume your Gliscor is meant to be a physical wall. In that case I´d change the nature to Impish. Also on your Rotom, you might consider the standard 4HP/252Sp.Atk/252Spe spread so as to give you more revenge killing opportunities.

Just my 2 cents.

Vrai said:

Swift Swim Kingdra is allowed when used with Pokemon that use the move Rain Dance, just not allowed with Politoed and its Drizzle ability.

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*facepalm* I totally forgot about that fact. Fail on my part, I do apologize. /derp

I just used your team for a couple battles, since you gave us the text for it.

So far I've only came across two issues. The first has already been mentioned, Drain Punch works much better on Scrafty, especially since it's paired with the life orb.

My second issue is probably just me... but I've come across numberous Swampert Leads... and Rotom can't do a thing, and is forced to switch. I'm tempted to swap out HP Fire for something.

I've never used Latios in my life... and I'm loving it. :)

Vrai said:

Tricking the Specs away locks it into Stealth Rock (which you can presume it will do as all the other moves it commonly uses are ineffective against Rotom-W).

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Gotta agree, I used to really underestimate Trick a while back in Gen IV but it´s an AMAZING move assuming you can use it effectivelly.

Vrai said:

Hydro Pump does a number to it, and Tricking the Specs away locks it into Stealth Rock (which you can presume it will do as all the other moves it commonly uses are ineffective against Rotom-W). From then you can Volt Change away as it will most certainly switch out.

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... I'm not the brightest sometimes. Thank you!