First Shoddy Team, OU tier

[SoulRed12]

Well I started playing Shoddy recently, and I've been trying to put together an effective team. Here's what I've got so far and my reasoning behind the choices:

:t169: Crobat (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 100 HP/152 Atk/252 Spd/6 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Taunt
- U-turn
---
My opener. Brave bird to take out whoever I can, taunt for baton-passers.

:t126: Magmortar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 6 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Will-o-wisp
- Thunderbolt
---
I was advised to replace this one with Jirachi, but I decided not to (at least not yet) only because his speed mixed with his special attack makes him insanely useful, and with the scarf he's even damaging on water types regardless%

 

[Dark Azelf]

:t169: Crobat (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs:104 HP / 152 Atk / 252 Speed
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Taunt
- U-Turn

Crobat is WAY too bulky for sash. period. This set is better to lead the team.

---
:t126: Magmortar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 6 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast

Use this to revenge kill stuff since you are Gyarados weak.
---

:t260: Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 240 Hp/56 SAtk/216 Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump / Surf / Roar
- Stealth Rock

You need SR on your team and you need a Tyranitar counter to use this. Mix pert is honestly ALOT better.
---

:t282: Gardevoir (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Signal Beam

"I am outclassed by Azelf, Zam, even Gengar etc" .____.
---

:t143: Snorlax (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk/252 SDef/6 HP
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Body Slam
- Selfdestruct
- Earthquake
- Crunch / Fire Punch

Offensive lax is better.

---

:t359: Absol (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/6 SAtk
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- SuperPower
- Swords Dance
- Psycho Cut
---
Dear lord no lol. Use this set on absol, its scary even in ou. E.g A LO Sucker Punch not boosted by an SD does ~80% to standard mence. However after an SD it rips things to shreds.

Comments in bold, there was alot to chage.

You are Lucario/Scizor and Mence weak (kinda).

Jirachi@Choice Scarf
252 ATT / 252 SPEED / 6 HP
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Iron Head
- Thunderpunch

>> Magmortar imo for insurance.

 

[SoulRed12]

I've never actually played DPP, so I don't know what half these moves do, or even that they existed lol. =p Serebii.net ftw...

EDIT: Anyways, I made your changes, along with replacing Gardevoir with Starmie...

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Rapid Spin
- Cosmic Power
- Surf
---

Partly for rapid spin, to get rid of stealth rocks and poison spikes, and partly for another special sweeper. I figure timid nature, since rapid spin does almost no damage in the first place. Let me know if I made good/bad choices with this one. Thanks! :)

 

[Aurafire]

I've never actually played DPP, so I don't know what half these moves do, or even that they existed lol. =p Serebii.net ftw...

EDIT: Anyways, I made your changes, along with replacing Gardevoir with Starmie...

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP / 156 Def / 216 Speed
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Surf
---

Partly for rapid spin, to get rid of stealth rocks and poison spikes, and partly for another special sweeper. I figure timid nature, since rapid spin does almost no damage in the first place. Let me know if I made good/bad choices with this one. Thanks! :)

Use that if you want a spinner. Changes in bold...Chances are, if you get in to rapid spin, you won't have time for a Cosmic Power, and even if you did, it's kind of lol on Starmie since it's not the bulkiest of pokemon anyway. But in all honesty, if you replace Magmortar with Jirachi (do that anyway), a spinner on this team is questionable since you have only one poke that's weak to it.

Careful with your item choices, berries really only have very specific uses, so using that many on one team usually isn't a good idea, use the items D_A gave you.

 

[SoulRed12]

Okay, I updated the first post with my new team. I took your guys's suggestions. For some reason, I'm trying to put in Jirachi, and it's telling me my nature is invalid. I put it as jolly. Other natures seem to work...timid, modest, calm and docile all work, and the others don't. What's going on? EDIT: I changed HP to dark...and it's working again...what the heck happened??

A few questions though.....I tend to be beat down pretty well by Heatran and Blissey, for the obvious reasons both ways. I've beat them the last time or two, but all in all, I tend to lose because of those opponents. Any strategies with this team for them?

EDIT: Also porygon z seems to be obliterating me very quickly.

 

[Skip Shot]

Okay, I updated the first post with my new team. I took your guys's suggestions. For some reason, I'm trying to put in Jirachi, and it's telling me my nature is invalid. I put it as jolly. Other natures seem to work...timid, modest, calm and docile all work, and the others don't. What's going on? EDIT: I changed HP to dark...and it's working again...what the heck happened??

A few questions though.....I tend to be beat down pretty well by Heatran and Blissey, for the obvious reasons both ways. I've beat them the last time or two, but all in all, I tend to lose because of those opponents. Any strategies with this team for them?

EDIT: Also porygon z seems to be obliterating me very quickly.

With Jirachi, some natures/IV combinations are illegal. that's probably why it didn't work.

I don't see how Porygon-Z gives you problems. Every set I'm looking at on Smogon besides the Agility set gets OHKOed 100% of the time by UNBOOSTED Absol's Sucker Punch if Stealth Rock is up.

 

[SoulRed12]

With Jirachi, some natures/IV combinations are illegal. that's probably why it didn't work.

I don't see how Porygon-Z gives you problems. Every set I'm looking at on Smogon besides the Agility set gets OHKOed 100% of the time by UNBOOSTED Absol's Sucker Punch if Stealth Rock is up.

Strange about Jirachi. But ah well, at least I got it to work.

Jirachi seems to be helping a lot, thanks to its three punches and the scarf so it almost guarantees it to go first. Great revenge killer, too.

As for Z, yeah. The encounter I remember went like this: The guy opened with Z, used agility, and then spammed tri-attack which for some reason was insanely powerful. I did manage to take it out soon enough but at that point my team wasn't strong enough to continue. I suppose sucker punch is the answer, though. Any tips for the other two (Heatran and Blissey)?

And if you're thinking, "This guy must be a total newb to competitive battling." You'd be right ;)

 

[Skip Shot]

Both Heatran and Blissey are easily decimated by Infernape, Machamp, etc. If you want to, you can use a Choice Band or Bulk Up Machamp>> Snorlax as your bulky hitter. It tears apart Blissey pretty well. You can afford to use a Bulk Up Machamp because you currently only have one Pokemon that uses a set-up move (Absol), and that doesn't always require it to net kills.

Here's CB Champ:

Machamp @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature- Guts
128 HP/ 252 Atk/ 128 Spe

Close Combat
Thunderpunch
Ice Punch
Payback

128 Spe outspeeds Skarmory, which means you can leave a dent in it with Close Combat.

Here's the Bulk Up set:

Machamp @ Leftovers
Adamant Nature- No Guard
252 HP/ 128 Atk/ 128 Spe

Dynamic Punch
Bulk Up
Payback
Ice Punch

I chose Payback and Ice Punch (Stone Edge and T-Punch are viable) so you can hit Gliscor and get great coverage with D-Punch and Payback, hitting everything for neutral.

 

[StrickeN]

Well I started playing Shoddy recently, and I've been trying to put together an effective team. Here's what I've got so far and my reasoning behind the choices:

:t169: Crobat (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 100 HP/152 Atk/252 Spd/6 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Taunt
- U-turn
---
My opener. Brave bird to take out whoever I can, taunt for baton-passers.

:t126: Magmortar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 6 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Will-o-wisp
- Thunderbolt
Replaced by Jirachi so I won't touch it.
---
I was advised to replace this one with Jirachi, but I decided not to (at least not yet) only because his speed mixed with his special attack makes him insanely useful, and with the scarf he's even damaging on water types regardless of whether he's stuck on flamethrower.

:t260: Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP/214 Def/56 SAtk
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
D-A gave it to you and seems fine to me.
---
Mixed sweeper, baton-pass-counter, SR user.

:t121: Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Recover
- Thunderbolt
I don't see a weakness to stealth rock but I see a Rapid Spinner. You are wasting your time here. You are blissey weak and this seems to be your dead weight. For more special attacking power / blissey coverage try this

Infernape @ Life Orb
Naive
252 Sp. Att / 36 Att / 220 Spe
-Close Combat
-Fire Blast
-HP Ice
-Grass Knot

Give you good coverage and helps your blissey problem.
---
Spinner, because I hate how everyone is using tspikes and SR on me. SR doesn't affect it much, and it's fast enough to usually get off RS before it's taken out.

:t143: Snorlax (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fire Punch
- Body Slam
- Selfdestruct
- Earthquake
---
Offensive semi-wall. Selfdestruct is there as a last resort and also to take out any pokemon that I absolutely need to get rid of for whatever reason.

:t359: Absol (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/6 SAtk
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Swords Dance
- Psycho Cut
---
My strongest physical sweeper. Really really effective, provided I switch it in at the correct time. I only wish sucker punch had more pp =/

Note this is the second version of my team.

I understand the concepts and mechanics of pokemon, but I'm relatively new to the competitive battling scene; hopefully someone can critique my team so I can get better. Thanks!

Not much but a couple comments in bold.

 

[SoulRed12]

Not much but a couple comments in bold.

Thanks for your comments...I was using machamp in starmie's place (I had already replaced it but forgot to change the first post...) but actually, infernape seems to be more useful since it can combat blissy and it's resistant to heatran's fire blast. ^_^

 

[Relevant]

For one thing, a few of those aren't OU. But I never got that right when I started.

I like Psychic/Shadow Ball on starmie. Switch SB for something.

Better rate later, if I see anything.

-MetalGardevoir

 

[SoulRed12]

I replaced Starmie with Infernape, (actually, machamp, and then infernape). Seems to be working well. He just OHKOed a Mence ^_^

Just for future reference, though, what's "SB"?

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're allowed to use BL, UU, and NU when playing OU right? I thought that was how it was...or were you just pointing something out? :)

EDIT: I was reading through smogon, and I came across the "blackjack" setup for absol. It looks rather promising, would it be a good idea to use it for my team in place of the current absol setup?