First competetive OU team in a while...

[Jimmyray]

I've been trying this team out on shoddy, but there are a few problems I have noted which I will mention at the appropriate points. Here's the team at a glance:

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Bronzong@Macho Brace
Sassy
Levitate
252 HP 86 ATK 80 DEF 92 SP.DEF
Gyro Ball
Stealth Rock
Trick
Grass Knot/Explosion

Now I've been running Explosion on shoddy, and have found it of little use. Also I have found myself struggling against Gyara leads and also the likes of Hippowdon and Swampert can be a menace. If gyara comes in for a taunt I can dent it with Grass Knot, and it would do serious damage to Hippowdon and Swampert as well. Obviously if I ran Grass Knot, I would put the EV's in Sp.Atk. Besides this problem, the Trick tactic works very well.

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Azelf@Life Orb
Timd
Levitate
252 SP.ATK 252 SPD 4 HP
Nasty Plot
Thunderbolt
Flamethrower
Psychic

Great special sweeper, does it's job well. Can 2 or 3HKO Blissey, though I have plenty of other counters for her. Quite happy with Azelf.

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Empoleon@Petaya berry
Modest
Torrent
252 SP.ATK 234 SPD 12 DEF 12 HP
Agility
Substitute
Surf
Ice Beam

One of my fave methods now, switch in on one of the 12 type resists Empoleon has, agility, sub till Petaya activates and sweep away. Any team which does not carry Tentacruel or Vaporeon fears this.

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Dusknoir@Leftovers
Relaxed
Pressure
252 HP 252 DEF 6 ATK
Gravity
Shadow Sneak
Dynamicpunch
Will-o-Wisp

This set worked very well at first, and is very good at stalling. The idea is to activate Gravity and then hit the foe with Dynamicpunch (82% acc) in turn confusing them, then burning them with WoW (100% acc) so they gradually lose life. Shadow Sneak is mainly because it's STAB and the only priority move I have on my team.

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Infernape@Life Orb
Naive
Blaze
64 ATK 194 SPD 252 SP.ATK
Close Combat
Grass Knot
Flamethrower
Hidden Power [ICE]

Specially based Mixape says lol to most big threats like TTar and also takes on dragons well. It struggles against Latias however, and seeing as I use ape late game, this does concern me slightly. This is why I'm so unsure about my last slot in the team.

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Electivire@Expert Belt
Adamant
Motor Drive
252 ATK 252 SPD 6 HP
Thunder Punch
Ice Punch
Cross Chop
Earthquake

This is my bulky Gyara counter, but even with speed at 289, it still gets outsped by a lot of things. I do find it very useful though, switching in to TWave from Blissey then OHKO with Cross Chop, or if Jolteon is sent out to Empoleon, I switch Vire in straight away. I am thinking of changing Vire, but I don't know what to replace him with.

 

[The Roshi]

I think bronzong running explosion is really useless (as you said). I've seen it on youtube used for explosion, but during double battles. Gigatitan uses first-turn explosion to wipe out (or severely damage) the first two pokemon that the trainer has. It usually helps him a bunch. But yeah... in singles it gets kind of dicey with the switching and prediction. I honestly cannot critique or anything else (because I don't own a 4th-gen game) (Platinum is coming in like two to three weeks, I just bought a DS). I tried not to get to into the pokemon or the new moves because I wanted to experience them for myself and not spoil anything =D.

Oh, and your team does seem to be a bit slow and it's not a trick room team. So maybe add one more fast(er) pokemon? That's really all I can help you with. Sorry man.

EDIT: Or you could just add trick room to Dusknoir and give yourself an advantage.
EDIT2: Or you could make a baton pass strategy to speed up one of the slow pokes (pun intended)

 

[Jimmyray]

I think bronzong running explosion is really useless (as you said). I've seen it on youtube used for explosion, but during double battles. Gigatitan uses first-turn explosion to wipe out (or severely damage) the first two pokemon that the trainer has. It usually helps him a bunch. But yeah... in singles it gets kind of dicey with the switching and prediction. I honestly cannot critique or anything else (because I don't own a 4th-gen game) (Platinum is coming in like two to three weeks, I just bought a DS). I tried not to get to into the pokemon or the new moves because I wanted to experience them for myself and not spoil anything =D.

Oh, and your team does seem to be a bit slow and it's not a trick room team. So maybe add one more fast(er) pokemon? That's really all I can help you with. Sorry man.

EDIT: Or you could just add trick room to Dusknoir and give yourself an advantage.
EDIT2: Or you could make a baton pass strategy to speed up one of the slow pokes (pun intended)

Lols, I can't blame you for thinking Trick and Trick Room are the same, but they're not. Trick swaps items.

 

[Dark Azelf]

Dusknoir is novelty and gravity just hurts your team since with gravity up, for example Scarf Flygon eats you. :/ Replace it for something more useful imo

That and physical vire really sucks.

Your main problem is the general lack of speed, good priority and resistances etc which makes it hard for you to check and essentially revenge kill things too, if they use a DD or a SD for example.

Where to start, you lack effective ways to beat Swords Dance Lucario, DD Gyarados, Heatran (2hko's everything despite ape even resisting its fire blast...lol) amongst various others.

Take note of this its what its there for.

 

[The Roshi]

Lols, I can't blame you for thinking Trick and Trick Room are the same, but they're not. Trick swaps items.

I never said trick and trick room were the same. I said add trick room to dusknoir because I know it can learn it. If your pokemon are slow (like most of yours) trick room will reverse the roles and make them move first for 5 turns.... >_> And you have the game, what's going on? =P

 

[Jimmyray]

I never said trick and trick room were the same. I said add trick room to dusknoir because I know it can learn it. If your pokemon are slow (like most of yours) trick room will reverse the roles and make them move first for 5 turns.... >_> And you have the game, what's going on? =P

That would defeat the object of my team :| You have to kinda build a team around trick room if you want to use it.

Dusknoir is novelty and gravity just hurts your team since with gravity up, for example Scarf Flygon eats you. :/ Replace it for something more useful imo

That and physical vire really sucks.

Your main problem is the general lack of speed, good priority and resistances etc which makes it hard for you to check and essentially revenge kill things too, if they use a DD or a SD for example.

Where to start, you lack effective ways to beat Swords Dance Lucario, DD Gyarados, Heatran (2hko's everything despite ape even resisting its fire blast...lol) amongst various others.

Take note of this its what its there for.

Dark Azelf, could you recommend a replacement for Vire (perhaps a Choice Band poke that can take on Gyara) & perhaps Dusknoir?