Emperor AzeDos InfernHippo's tomb / OU Tier

[SoulRed12]

Emperor AzeDos InfernHippo's tomb / OU-Tier

Yeah I know, lame name (I can rhyme! =O ) but I wanted to write something other than "OMG raet mai teem". Note the name no longer applies now due to the change in ordering and the addition of scizor, rotom, and porygon2...but I don't know how to change my thread title XD

Anyways, here's the team along with my strategy underneath each poke (you can get a grasp of my overall strategy by going through that text...I need comments on that as much as my team). All comments greatly appreciated!

Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 176 HP / 80 Att / 252 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Ice Fang
- Stealth Rock
---
Physical tank, SR-er, and sash breaker due to sandstream. Azelf was my original lead, but I replaced him with Hippow (who was previously in my team but not at the lead). I'll usually take out the opponent's opener if at all possible, then SR and if I can't deal any damage for whatever reason, I'll attempt to stall with slack off so the sandstorm can do some damage. If they are sandstorm-immune or if I think they'll just set up on me (e.g. with gyarados), I'll swap out and save him to come back later. Also nice in case someone spins away the rocks at some point.

Rotom-h @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 108 HP/224 Spd/176 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
- Shadow Ball
---
Scarfed rotom. Great for tricking pokemon while using a move resisted by empoleon, and then switch in to him allowing him to set up his substitute. Also great to cripple blisseys who switch in expecting to sponge his special attacks...depending on what he uses on me, I'll then just switch to the appropriate pokemon. If status, I'll stick it out or switch to hippowdon or empleon (depending on whether it's poison or paralysis), if not, I'll switch to scizor.

Infernape (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 Spd / 252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot
---
Revenge killer to the max. The choice scarf is combined with the wide type coverage to surprise opponents, for example if I bring him out to revenge kill a swampert. However, most people probably expect something screwy if I do that and swap out, causing me to be stuck with an ineffective attack, so I try to keep him hidden until near the end to get in that final kill. He can also OHKO Heatran (though I can only bring him in for that job after one of my other pokes faints), as well as Scizor (whose moves, save brick break/superpower, are all resisted).

Porygon2 @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Ice Beam
- Recover
---
Used to counter gyrados and heatran by copying their ability, thereby causing gyarados to lose its attack bonus if it uses dd on my switch or absorbing heatrans fire move with flash fire or taking minimal damage otherwise. With gyarados, at that point I'll recover, and then discharge generally OHKOs it. If it switches out, I get a free recover. Usually I won't discharge immediately in case there's a motor drive elec pokemon hiding in their team and in that case I can swap to rotom for his resistance. With heatran, well, it's really pretty straightforward from there considering I'll just recover off any damage tran tries to deal with earth power or dragon pulse, hitting back with HP fighting.

Scizor (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spd / 16 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Brick Break
- U-turn
- Pursuit
---
Alakazam counter (I think?) and all around badass. Bullet Punch for quick revenge kills. I'll switch to him whenever I need to do just that, or when I need to take care of e.g. an annoying celebi or blissey with U turn or pursuit. Pursuit also, of course, works well against Gengars, but unfortunately they usually have focus blast and outrun me so I end up using bullet punch which tends to OHKO most of them anyways. Also an amazing counter to cresselia, as U-turn tends to wreak havoc. Considering a lum berry instead of choice band in case I need to break a screen and then use u-turn...but that takes away a great portion of scizor's power so idk.

Empoleon (F) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 12 HP/232 Spd/252 SAtk/12 SDef
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Surf
- Grass knot
- Agility
- Substitute
---
Usually a late-game sweeper. Switch in on one of its resists (hopefully tricked by rotom), agility on the change, and then substitute until he consumes the pinch berry. Priority movers completely obliterate this guy though, so if I see one pop by I'll swap out to get rid of him with another guy who resists, most likely hippow if he is still alive since he takes minimal damage from physical attacks and can always slack it off and 2HKO most fighting types back (especially after the defense loss of close combat). Rotom could work as well, though many priority move users have other moves that are super effective against rotom such as a Luke with crunch.

 

[Skip Shot]

Why are you not using Hippowdon as a lead? It helps a lot with breaking Sashes on lead Pokes, since nothing else carries a sash anyways. Put Hippowdon as your lead, and go with Steatlh Rock/EQ/Slack Off/ Roar or Ice Fang or Stone Edge.

If you're worried that much about Alakazam (who I've rarely seen in play), go ahead and drop Azelf for CB Scizor.

RestTalking doesn't work much in Platinum unless you're running a stall team (and barely even then). I would drop Spiritomb altogether. I can't see a definitive weak from Gyarados/Mence/Scizor (which every team seems to be weak to now lol), I leave it to you to pick a final Pokemon for that role.

Zapdos wants Discharge>> CHarge Beam, and since Infernape is a hit-and-run poke, you can drop Fire Blast for Overheat if you want.

 

[Dark Azelf]

"If Gyarados gets in a Dragon Dance you are 6-0'd"

Replace Azelf with a check to it or something since Azelf isnt doing much here imo. Porygon2 could work i guess, this also covers that stupid Heatran weak you have. Infernape gets 2hko'd by like fire blast lol

Porygon2@Leftovers
252 HP / 216 DEF / 40 SP.ATT
Bold Nature
Trait : Trace
- Discharge
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic / Hidden Power [Fighting]

HP Fight is mainly for Sub Tran and T-Tar switch ins, also hits Magnezone.

Lead with Hippow and SR >> Stockfail and give it more def evs, just max it since you need it especially with Aqua Tail T-Tars running around everywhere and this also helps with Lucario aswell some what. Hippowdon wants Earthquake. ALWAYS.

Zapdos wants 252 HP / 80 DEF / 176 SPEED @ Timid so you can check Lucario and Scizor better.

I can tell you right now that Latias walls your whole team badly. Put in a Scizor > Spiritomb who is really only good as a spin blocker tbh (which you dont need as this isnt a stall team) this also gives you priority something which you lack. CB Scizor would be great as Pursuiting something like Blissey makes Empoleons job one heck of alot easier. ^_^

Scizor@Choice Band
72 hp / 252 att / 168 speed / 16 s.def
Adamant Nature
Trait : Technician
- Bullet Punch
- Brick Break / SuperPower
- U-Turn
- Pursuit

Also why is he called "Empoleon"? Shouldn't it be "Empenguin" or something lol?

Emperor Penguin + Napoleon (Since Napoleon was an Emperor) = Empoleon.

Yeah. >.< lol

Anyways just some things to consider here.

 

[SoulRed12]

I can't see a definitive weak from Gyarados/Mence/Scizor (which every team seems to be weak to now lol), I leave it to you to pick a final Pokemon for that role.

I'm assuming you meant "I can see a definitive..." right lol?

Zapdos wants Discharge>> CHarge Beam, and since Infernape is a hit-and-run poke, you can drop Fire Blast for Overheat if you want.

Ah I was wondering about both of those actually. Thanks for the advice.

Anyways, great suggestions guys I'm gonna go ahead and lead with Hippo and swap Scizor>>Spiritomb and Porygon2>>Azelf and see what happens. Too bad I can't change the thread name XD

One question I have though, what should I do if my opponent leads with Azelf or another poke immune to eq (and I lead with Hippo)? SR then roar, I'm assuming?

 

[Skip Shot]

I'm assuming you meant "I can see a definitive..." right lol?
With Scizor and Mence, "can't". Zapdos lols at Scizor, outspeeds and smashes with Heat Wave. Mence is easily revenged killed by Ape, and if Empo gets an Agility or two (idk how many), it can outspeed Mence and take out with Ice Beam.
(yeah, I'm known for not being able to correctly identify a Gyarados weak, so let's not go there).




One question I have though, what should I do if my opponent leads with Azelf or another poke immune to eq (and I lead with Hippo)? SR then roar, I'm assuming?
Roar could be put there if you want, but Stone Edge/Ice Fang/Fire Fang can be used as well. Fire Fang is your best option against Bronzong leads, but since Azelf is more common, consider Stone Edge as well.

My comments are in bold. On the point of Empoleon, I prefer the SubPetaya set over AgiliLifeOrb. Just something to consider.

 

[SoulRed12]

Roar could be put there if you want, but Stone Edge/Ice Fang/Fire Fang can be used as well. Fire Fang is your best option against Bronzong leads, but since Azelf is more common, consider Stone Edge as well.

One of those attacks would certainly help. The one thing I'm worried about though is being left without a phazer, though I suppose the fact that I'm leading with hippow means that it could be KOed before it needs to do any phazing.

I just get paranoid about the baton pass setup, and/or not being able to break a substitute. More so, ever since the day I got belly-drummed by a smeargle with a substitute up who baton passed to a scizor with choice band >.<

 

[Skip Shot]

One of those attacks would certainly help. The one thing I'm worried about though is being left without a phazer, though I suppose the fact that I'm leading with hippow means that it could be KOed before it needs to do any phazing.

I just get paranoid about the baton pass setup, and/or not being able to break a substitute. More so, ever since the day I got belly-drummed by a smeargle with a substitute up who baton passed to a scizor with choice band >.<

well, since this is a hyper-offensive metagame now, you usually rely on resistances to win. If you want to keep Roar, that's fine. If not, just remember that this +6 CB Scizor does 25% of the damage to Empoleon that it does to a poke that takes neutral from Bullet Punch.

 

[SoulRed12]

well, since this is a hyper-offensive metagame now, you usually rely on resistances to win. If you want to keep Roar, that's fine. If not, just remember that this +6 CB Scizor does 25% of the damage to Empoleon that it does to a poke that takes neutral from Bullet Punch.

Coming to think of it, you're right. I didn't think of that, but yeah. A bullet punch from that scizor only did about 70% to my offensive dos, which only has 2x resistance so...hehe. I'll just try harder to save my empoleon for near last.

Anyways this team seems to be doing well so far. I suppose the real test will be more battles so I come up against more threats.

Thanks for all your help!

Even though I think this team might be pretty set for now, any other insights are still welcome, of course. ^_^

 

[Samson]

oh my rofl. just because you surprisingly outsped some foes does not mean it's okay to leave hippo w/ the speed. what is it going to do with the extra speed anyway? if an CB ttar tried to aqua tail you, chances are it's going to have more speed. there are no other reasonable scenarios that will justify it.

 

[SoulRed12]

oh my rofl. just because you surprisingly outsped some foes does not mean it's okay to leave hippo w/ the speed. what is it going to do with the extra speed anyway? if an CB ttar tried to aqua tail you, chances are it's going to have more speed. there are no other reasonable scenarios that will justify it.

Not exactly "no" resonable scenarios. Thing was, it was outspeeding some poke's who tried to roar/whirlwind me at the same time as I would. When I was using stockpile with hippow, I wanted to counter their roaring (by getting off a roar of my own first) and that's how it helped me.

But since I got rid of roar and stockpile anyways, yeah, there's no point in keeping the evs in speed, and if you have a look at some of the above posts you'll see I already did so :)

I should probably update the first post in order to make the changes more apparent.

 

[.]

That is the worst Hippowdon I've ever seen. Jesus, what made you think running 248 SDef was smart? Get rid of that, and run either max Defense, or at least 170 Defense EVs. Keep Impish, and consider Roar.

 

[SoulRed12]

That is the worst Hippowdon I've ever seen. Jesus, what made you think running 248 SDef was smart? Get rid of that, and run either max Defense, or at least 170 Defense EVs. Keep Impish, and consider Roar.

Thanks for your kind words. The idea behind the sdefense was to make it bulkier all around, especially since it tends to be attacked with special ice or water moves. Regardless, remember I'm not all that experienced; maybe instead of just writing a post implying that you think I was an idiot for doing something, it might have been better to tell my why I should or shouldn't have done it. Don't you think that would have been a little more helpful?

 

[Anti]

Thanks for your kind words. The idea behind the sdefense was to make it bulkier all around, especially since it tends to be attacked with special ice or water moves. Regardless, remember I'm not all that experienced; maybe instead of just writing a post implying that you think I was an idiot for doing something, it might have been better to tell my why I should or shouldn't have done it. Don't you think that would have been a little more helpful?

SDef EVs aren't helpful because Hippowdon should just be switching out if something like Suicune or Vaporeon comes in. Hippowdon just isn't supposed to be taking special hits, and weakening his ability to take the physical hits he's supposed to take is rather counterproductive.

 

[SoulRed12]

SDef EVs aren't helpful because Hippowdon should just be switching out if something like Suicune or Vaporeon comes in. Hippowdon just isn't supposed to be taking special hits, and weakening his ability to take the physical hits he's supposed to take is rather counterproductive.

Ah...so in general it's better to have specialized (as in, only having one job) walls than to have mixed walls? I suppose that makes sense. Thank you for the info, it's this kind of general tip that I need to become self-sufficient in the future.

 

[Anti]

Ah...so in general it's better to have specialized (as in, only having one job) walls than to have mixed walls? I suppose that makes sense. Thank you for the info, it's this kind of general tip that I need to become self-sufficient in the future.

Well not necessarily, and there are good mixed walls out there, but Hippowdon doesn't have the Special Defensive capabilities or typing to be a mixed wall.

 

[Malevolent Mismagius]

In my opinion Rotom-h does a better job of countering Scizor/Luke as well as countering Gyara.

Rotom-h @ Choice Scarf
108 HP / 176 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid

Overheat
Thunderbolt
Will-o-wisp/Shadow Ball
Trick

This also tricks and burns stuff.

With that you could rid of P-2 as he is sort of shaky, he isn't even OU.

Why are you using Charge Beam anyway, go Tbolt>>it. Ice Fang>>Fire Fang on Hippow, you already hit Scizor and Luke.

Replace P-2 with CBMamo:

Mamoswine @ Choice Band
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe <---This is standard. I have never used CBMamo so I take it standard is good.
Adamant <---Already destroy Luke, hencethe speed isn't necessary

Stone Edge
Earthquake
Ice Shard
Superpower

Revenges mence, because nothing is a surefire mence counter unless you know the set. This hits hard and offers coverage.

Make Scizor SD, it's very easy to set him up for the sweep if you know what you are doing + if you set him up he's even more powerful than CB. You already have Mamo to hit hard, and he hits hard enough.

Team should look like this: Hippow/Rotom-h/Scarfape/Mamo/SDScizor/Empoleon

 

[Dark Azelf]

In my opinion Rotom-h does a better job of countering Scizor/Luke as well as countering Gyara.

Rotom-h @ Choice Scarf
108 HP / 176 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid

Overheat
Thunderbolt
Will-o-wisp/Shadow Ball
Trick

This also tricks and burns stuff.

With that you could rid of P-2 as he is sort of shaky, he isn't even OU.

Why are you using Charge Beam anyway, go Tbolt>>it. Ice Fang>>Fire Fang on Hippow, you already hit Scizor and Luke.

Replace P-2 with CBMamo:

Mamoswine @ Choice Band
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe <---This is standard. I have never used CBMamo so I take it standard is good.
Adamant <---Already destroy Luke, hencethe speed isn't necessary

Stone Edge
Earthquake
Ice Shard
Superpower

Revenges mence, because nothing is a surefire mence counter unless you know the set. This hits hard and offers coverage.

Make Scizor SD, it's very easy to set him up for the sweep if you know what you are doing + if you set him up he's even more powerful than CB. You already have Mamo to hit hard, and he hits hard enough.

Team should look like this: Hippow/Rotom-h/Scarfape/Mamo/SDScizor/Empoleon

If anything, Rotom should go >> Zapdos. Porygon 2 is the best counter in the game for Gyarados. Porygon 2 also covers his horrific Heatran weakness who pretty much OHKO's and 2HKO's his whole team otherwise.

Porygon 2 also covers Mence to an extent too, its not like he is mence weak with Bullet Punch Scizor + SR either so i dont get your changes.

 

[StrickeN]

If you want to use rotom to check Lucario/Gyara etc I find that BulkyRotom is better.

Never the less, Over Heat really isn't that needed for just Scizor. WoW to Tbolt works just as well.

 

[.]

Thanks for your kind words. The idea behind the sdefense was to make it bulkier all around, especially since it tends to be attacked with special ice or water moves. Regardless, remember I'm not all that experienced; maybe instead of just writing a post implying that you think I was an idiot for doing something, it might have been better to tell my why I should or shouldn't have done it. Don't you think that would have been a little more helpful?

I never implied you were an idiot, you made that assumption up by yourself. And to be honest, it's very obvious why Hippowdon needs max Defense: It's a physical wall. Don't rely on Hippowdon for tanking special hits, it'll never work. Not even with that high HP it's got. His low 72 Base SpD overshadows that.

I agree with Overrated as well, Scarf Rotom is great, plus SD Luke destroys you from here (especially with that defensively weak Hippowdon).

 

[SoulRed12]

I never implied you were an idiot, you made that assumption up by yourself. And to be honest, it's very obvious why Hippowdon needs max Defense: It's a physical wall. Don't rely on Hippowdon for tanking special hits, it'll never work. Not even with that high HP it's got. His low 72 Base SpD overshadows that.

I agree with Overrated as well, Scarf Rotom is great, plus SD Luke destroys you from here (especially with that defensively weak Hippowdon).

I suppose I overreacted. But for someone who is so experienced as you are, it's very easy to forget that a beginner like myself knows very little about competitive battling, even in regards to things that you may take as common knowledge. At any rate, it's all good now; I will take all your suggestions and try again.

BTW, a few days ago, I set up a rain dance team that's been working pretty well. I wouldn't be in violation of any rules if I posted it in this forum since my first thread (before this one) is now inactive, correct?

Thanks for all your guys's help with this team. ^_^ I will make some of the modifications in this thread, keep battling with it and then tweak it from there.