[Gen V OU] Empire

[Conjurer]

Tests are over and holiday started, so I jumped back into PC and made this pro/nub team. Enjoy (:

Empire
Look to the past and remember no empire rises that sooner or later won't fall. ​

1. Introduction
What inspired me to make this team was Roserade. It's one of my all time favorite Pokemon, and quite frankly the only one who stands a chance in OU. Seeing as its most potent perk is Toxic Spikes, I decided to build a stall team. Looking back, this team isn't centered around Roserade at all; it's merely a standalone supporter, but it's part of the team anyway, so who's complaining? Well, now that that's out of the way, I present you: Empire.

2. Team Building Process

Spoiler:

As I've said in the intro, I wanted to use Roserade, hence it being here.

As I've also said in the intro, I wanted to build a stall team. That meant I needed Stealth Rock and Spikes. After breezing through testing, which included Skarmory, Deoxys-S, Tyranitar and Forretress, I ended up with Ferrothorn and Hippowdon. Ferrothorn's superb typing, Leech Seed, list of resistances and astonishing bulk was what stood out to me. Hippowdon's solid physical defense and ability to phaze is also a nifty tool to keep around, and provides my team some defensive backbone to lie on.

As it is right now, my team is in dire need of a bulky water, due to Fire-, Ice- and Water-type weaknesses. With a handy immunity to Ground-type moves and only one weakness to speak of, Rotom-W fits the bill perfectly.

My team was obviously extremely weak to Ferrothorn, so I needed a fire type to soften the threat up. Heatran--TormenTran, that is--seems to do the job perfectly; aside from Lava Pluming Ferro and friends to oblivion, he can also force a lot of switches, hence racking up hazards damage.

Deciding that I needed something to abuse the sandstorm boost and keep an offensive pace up, I added Landorus to the team. With Choice Scarf in hand (well, neck) it becomes a godly revenge killer with access to both a STAB Earthquake and Stone Edge, both receiving a nice 30% bonus in bp from Sand Power.

Yeah, that's it. This team is fresh from the oven, so there's been no changes as of now--yet.

3. At a Glance

4. A Closer Look

@ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
- Aromatherapy

I stole this set from an RMT I saw earlier this week, though I can't remember which it is anymore. :/ Nevertheless, this set is pro. Obviously the pattern here is simple; Sleep the opponent and set up Toxic Spikes. Roserade now has some bulk attached and can survive a neutral hit or two if Sleep Powder decides to miss. Aromatherapy is a nice supporting move since nobody likes statuses.

@ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Protect
- Power Whip

Here we have my Spiker and anti-dragon. Leech Seed will, obviously, leech opponent's HP slowly, and sometimes this forces a switch (MOAR HAZARD DAMAGE PL0X). Spikes are pro, and thanks to them Hippowdon can instantly transform from a meatshield to a residual damage machine. Protect is for stalling the poison from Toxic Spikes as well as recovering some more HP with Leech Seed + Lefties, while Power Whip is a powerful STAB move.

@ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock

My team's meatshield. It sets up SR, spreads the toxic via Roar + Toxic Spikes, ToxicStall things to death with Slack Off and is usually my switch out recipient. Considering taking up Tyranitar because as it is right it's not far from dead weight. Probably my weakest link.

@ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP / 252 SAtk / 144 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Pain Split

Rotom-W is the epitome of the term "Tank". It will almost never be one-shotted, and can deal significant damage with one of its three attacks. I run Hidden Power Fire over Will-O-Wisp here just in case I encounter a Ferrothorn after Heatran dies. The rest is standard stuff.

@ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 44 SDef / 220 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Torment
- Protect
- Substitute
- Lava Plume

TormenTran is easily the MVP of this team. It forces a LOT of switches, and can stall out just about anything that isn't immune to the Toxic Spikes. It has Lava Plume to hit steels that can't be toxic stalled, and does decent damage to flying-types. Overall, it's an amazing team member.

@ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I needed something that can pick off weakened opponents, and Landorus, with Sand Force, was my pick. It has mad powerful attacks, and just enough speed to outspeed ScarfRachi and standard Genesect, which is a major boon for it. Tl;dr, it's an awesome revenge killer.

Threats:
I've yet to develop a threat list, since this team is so new.

Right now this team is undefeated in DW OU in Beta, currently sitting at 1380 Just thought I'd let you know. ;) EDIT: Passed 1400, and climbing.

P.S. Idk why I'm so lazy with the formatting today.

 

[Amuse]

Just looking through it I can´t see any glaring weaknesses, looks like you have all your bases covered. Nice job with the ranking, I´m pretty sure you can go higher still.

 

[Conjurer]

Much appreciated ^^

For future reference, this team is pretty Breloom weak. Landorus OHKOs with HP Ice after hazards, and Roserade does decent with Leaf Storm, but the main thing I'm relying on after Landorus is dead is the Toxic Spikes.

 

[flamehaze94]

This is a really good team, it's not surprising you're getting pretty high on the ladder. However, there are a few problem Pokemon that I'd like to address. The first is Latios. It can easily switch into Hippowdon and Rotom-W everytime and fire off boosted Surfs to hit everything. Ferrothorn is burned to crisps by a well timed HP Fire. Those with Recover to heal up LO + Sandstorm can give this team a headache since it's a threat that won't die easily and it's powerful enough to beat all your Pokemon 1 vs 1. Second, there's CM Virizon that can hit this entire team for super effective. This is less of a problem though since poison will wear it down quickly and full health Heatran can survive a +1 Focus Blast. The real threat comes late game when Virizion only needs one boost to finish everything off. I don't really want to swap out any of your members though, since this team is pretty successful on its own. Therefore, you'll just have to give them no room to freely switch in.

For this I'd consider Thunder Wave or Gyro Ball over Protect on Ferrothorn. There are quite a few threats that are not affected by T-Spikes that you would rather paralyze. One of them is the aforementioned Latios and another is Thundurus. Gyro Ball is your defense against fast threats like said Virizion and Latios. It hits suprisingly hard due to decent attack and crap speed. I'd also consider a fully specially defensive spread, something along the lines of 252HP / 8Def / 248SpD so you'd have a much easier time against special attackers. You even have a chance of surviving Latios HP Fire with that spread! I would also suggest Volt Switch over Thunderbolt on Rotom-W since it's such a great pivot and the extra momentum really helps in many cases. You can scare out Gyarados or Skarmory who fear Electric attacks and Volt Switch to put your opponent at a disadvantage. Or you can switch out from things like Latios and go immediately to Landorus for a free hit with U-turn or Stone Edge. Between Rocks, Sand, and little hits from Volt Switch and the like, Latios should go down if you don't give it a chance to Recover. Besides, it's not like you need the harder hitting Thunderbolt since this team is already pretty anti-bulky water with Toxic Spikes and two Grass types.

 

[Conjurer]

Thanks a lot, flamehaze ^^ All your suggestions have been taken into consideration, tested and kept. KOing Latios has been a lot less of a pain in the arse, although losing Protect was just that--a pain in the arse. Nevertheless, I enjoyed these changes, and once again thank you. ^^

Changes:
Gyro Ball > Protect on Ferrothorn
Volt Switch > Thunderbolt on Rotom-W

 

[sharpedofile]

Your ferrothorn shouldn't be an "anti-dragon", as most, if not all dragons can learn fire attacks that would melt it into a puddle.

 

[Conjurer]

It's true that all dragons can learn at least a fire attack (hidden power fire lol) but it still doesn't change the fact that Ferrothorn can set up on, say, Scarf Garchomp locked into Dragon Claw, and any nonboosted physical dragon locked into Outrage. That's the main point I'm referring to when I said "anti-dragon," but I guess I just wasn't clear enough. :P