Here We Go Again [OU]

[.Aero]

Introduction

Now, I have recently just started a League that is self titled. I need a team to function as both the Champion Battle as well as a gym tester team. So I need some group of pokemon that work exceptionally well together and can pack a punch. So this is my attempt and I hope it works. I will be updating with a threat list later. :/ It'll be the first time I ever do one and I think it'll help me create the team a bit better.

This is also my first RMT thread that has some major coding in it. ;D Let me know what you think about it. Is it distracting or it is attractive? xD The major coding is the fact that when you click the pokemon sprites in the overview, it'll jump you to the sets I have. :P I think it's pretty neat.

Overview

[alink id="Metagross"]*image removed*[/alink id] [alink id="Salamence"]*image removed*[/alink id] [alink id="Swampert"]*image removed*[/alink id] [alink id="Scizor"]*image removed*[/alink id] [alink id="Gengar"]*image removed*[/alink id] [alink id="Zapdos"]*image removed*[/alink id]

Detailed

Now it's time to get into detail of the team. Please rate with knowledge and make sure you give reasons to back suggestions up. I don't want people saying I'm weak to something and not giving me suggestions to fix that weakness, so if you do that, please don't post here.

[a id]Metagross[/a id]

Metagross

Metagross@Occa Berry
Nature: Adamant
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 12 Def / 8 Spe
~ Stealth Rock
~ Bullet Punch
~ Meteor Mash
~ Explosion

Ok, so the idea behind the Metagross lead is actually very simple. It's bulky, has great typing, and can counter some of the most common leads. It's great for getting Stealth Rock up, and once I get that in, I plan to pull him out and bring him back out later for some sweeping. Like Smogon's set said, I chose Meteor Mash over Earthquake because I don't want him to function as a suicide lead. Occa Berry helps me take the common Fire type attacks that would otherwise destroy me.

[a id]Salamence[/a id]

Salamence

Salamence@Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
~ Outrage
~ Dragon Dance
~ Earthquake
~ Fire Fang

Ok, so I've always gone with SpecsMence for the most part when using this beast. I need to start using his amazing physical side for once though. After a Dragon Dance, this thing is tough to beat as it can OHKO or 2HKO most things with an Outrage. I'm quite unsure however whether I want to go fully physical and use Stone Edge, or get the other set so I can cover steel types with Fire Blast. I'm going to need some help on this one, so if you do come and rate, please make this dilemma your priority.

[a id]Swampert[/a id]

Swampert

Swampert@Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 216 Def / 52 SpA
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Beam
~ Hydro Pump
~ Roar

MixPert is a beast. Hydro Pump over Surf because I need that extra power and it always seems like hax is on my side in most battles. xP He provides great coverage with Ice Beam and Hydro Pump that the rest of my team cannot, plus he can phaze and shuffle my enemies through and cause some entry hazard damage. It seems to me like he has it all.

[a id]Scizor[/a id]

Scizor

Scizor@Choice Band
Nature: Jolly
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
~ U-Turn
~ Superpower
~ Bullet Punch
~ Pursuit

Ok, so I've been noticing that Pokedra got a special little EV spread from Vance for this guy. Move the 8 Speed EVs to SpD, and you will U-Turn last against opposing Scizor while they hit you for NVE damage and you can deal some good damage to whatever they switch into. I thought I'd try this thing out as well. It also provides some added coverage to my team.

Set Update:

Anyway, I don't get some of this team...like Jolly CB Scizor. Jolly is practically defeating the purpose of something that expects to go last unless it's using Bullet Punch. Extra power for hitting stuff with U-Turn and Bullet Punch is way more useful than outspeeding a tiny handful of threats. Also, I have a feeling you were just buying into the 8 SDef EV Scizor hype that has been going around this forum lately and that you've never actually been in such a situation, since your Scizor is always going to be faster because of its Jolly nature. Speaking of that hype, I don't think it really matters that much where the 8 EVs go. Besides, you might be in a position where you need to revenge kill a Scizor at ~70% health, and I'd assume you'd much rather kill it right away than take a Superpower yourself (and that is very likely given your team and its Scizor weakness). Scizor isn't going to be 100% all the time, especially taking SR damage and resisted attacks. Also, no one in their right mind is going to Superpower an opposing Scizor hoping to win a Speed tie (and losing a ton of health regardless of who wins it). I know that wasn't something you mentioned, but I've heard it so I figured I'd weight in... It would probably be much more useful for falling behind the opposing Scizor for U-Turn, but losing to opposing Scizor always isn't always going to be beneficial. After all, they could use Superpower or something...

I'm not trying to say that 8 SDef is a bad idea, but I sort of doubt whether it really makes a difference. The whole scenario just seems to be over thought out if you ask me. Of course, using theorymon to counter (what at least appears to me to be) theorymon has its downsides as well, so it doesn't really matter, hahaha.

[a id]Gengar[/a id]

Gengar

Gengar@Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Shadow Ball
~ Hidden Power [Fire]/Explosion (I'll try each)
~ Focus Blast
~ Will-O-Wisp

Speedy, powerful, and has an awesome variety of attacks. Focus Blast/Shadow Ball combo isn't resisted by any pokemon in the game and HP[Fire] provides added coverage. Will-O-Wisp is great for crippling opponents physical sweepers. After being burned, Gengar has a chance of switching out of a Jolly CBScizor's Pursuit (SR lowers the chance).

Set Update:

Hp Fire >> T-Bolt on Gar, its much better than t-bolt in this metagame. So you dont actually LOSE to scizor, Meta, Zong, Jirachi, Sp.Def Payback forry (who can set on 4/6 of your team)etc. :/

T-Bolt kinda sucks, all it hits is like Gyarados (who cant take shadow balls) and cune who cant beat Celebi (or Zapdos) lol :/

Next, Timid on Gengar. Modest is just asking to lose to pretty much everything. you lack Hidden Power Fire, so you don't even lose a speed point, and you'll beat a lot of Gengar with 350 Speed. Also, switching out of Scizor is a bad idea. you survive Bullet Punch after WoW, so you'll be able to see what move it's using. Also, I would consider a Hasty nature with Explosion >>> Thunderbolt. Killing Blissey is nice, but it's also useful for getting in a last hit. Gengar can actually do a lot of damage with Explosion and put things into KO range or KO them outright. IT also bypasses Suicune CM boosts and hits it hard if Celebi is dead. But I mean, you handle Waters pretty well as it is, so I don't know if Thunderbolt is totally necessary. Again, it doesn't really matter, but just some stuff to consider. whatever you do, use a +Speed nature though. It's essential.

[a id]Zapdos[/a id]

Zapdos

Zapdos@Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
~ Thunderbolt
~ Heat Wave
~ Roost
~ Hidden Power [Grass]

Now I have tested my team on Shoddy, I didn't even bother putting Celebi in while creating the team. I instantly replaced it with this Zapdos, and I must say, this team isn't half bad. My current record with it is 2-1 (the two wins were pretty unanimous) and the only reason I lost that one was because of the constant sleep put onto my pokemon as well as the fact that I only had three attacks hit the entire match. So I think this is much better than Celebi.

Conclusion

So now I hope that I created a well balanced team that can deal with most of the OU threats. I won't really know if it handles well until I make my threat list, but please help me out with any problems you may see. As stated above, I want reasoning and suggestions if I have a weakness to certain pokemon and such.

 

[Anti]

You wanted to know about the coding. It looks pretty good, but randomly cutting off each line less than halfway across the page makes the thing a headache to read.

Anyway, I don't get some of this team...like Jolly CB Scizor. Jolly is practically defeating the purpose of something that expects to go last unless it's using Bullet Punch. Extra power for hitting stuff with U-Turn and Bullet Punch is way more useful than outspeeding a tiny handful of threats. Also, I have a feeling you were just buying into the 8 SDef EV Scizor hype that has been going around this forum lately and that you've never actually been in such a situation, since your Scizor is always going to be faster because of its Jolly nature. Speaking of that hype, I don't think it really matters that much where the 8 EVs go. Besides, you might be in a position where you need to revenge kill a Scizor at ~70% health, and I'd assume you'd much rather kill it right away than take a Superpower yourself (and that is very likely given your team and its Scizor weakness). Scizor isn't going to be 100% all the time, especially taking SR damage and resisted attacks. Also, no one in their right mind is going to Superpower an opposing Scizor hoping to win a Speed tie (and losing a ton of health regardless of who wins it). I know that wasn't something you mentioned, but I've heard it so I figured I'd weight in... It would probably be much more useful for falling behind the opposing Scizor for U-Turn, but losing to opposing Scizor always isn't always going to be beneficial. After all, they could use Superpower or something...

I'm not trying to say that 8 SDef is a bad idea, but I sort of doubt whether it really makes a difference. The whole scenario just seems to be over thought out if you ask me. Of course, using theorymon to counter (what at least appears to me to be) theorymon has its downsides as well, so it doesn't really matter, hahaha.

Next, Timid on Gengar. Modest is just asking to lose to pretty much everything. you lack Hidden Power Fire, so you don't even lose a speed point, and you'll beat a lot of Gengar with 350 Speed. Also, switching out of Scizor is a bad idea. you survive Bullet Punch after WoW, so you'll be able to see what move it's using. Also, I would consider a Hasty nature with Explosion >>> Thunderbolt. Killing Blissey is nice, but it's also useful for getting in a last hit. Gengar can actually do a lot of damage with Explosion and put things into KO range or KO them outright. IT also bypasses Suicune CM boosts and hits it hard if Celebi is dead. But I mean, you handle Waters pretty well as it is, so I don't know if Thunderbolt is totally necessary. Again, it doesn't really matter, but just some stuff to consider. whatever you do, use a +Speed nature though. It's essential.

Now, weaknesses. Scizor. It can beat your team up pretty easily, actually. Granted, it could get wasted switching into Gengar, but if WoW misses or the opponent just doesn't switch it into Gengar, you've got a problem, especially against the Swords Dancer. Salamence loses to Bullet Punch, and Celebi, even though it's faster and has HP Fire (???) is easy to pick off as it switches in with X-Scissor. You basically have to blow it up with Metagross or slowly chip away at its health until it dies, and neither option is particularly great. You could just use defensive Zapdos >>> Celebi to fix that.

Lucario and Heracross are basically the same, but you have Gengar to keep them in check somewhat (unless you use Salamence, but that makes sweeping with it pretty much impossible). Zapdos should help somewhat, though you'll still have trouble. Heracross weaks are basically inevitable, but watch out for Lucario. You run run a more offensive variant to outspeed Jolly sets and toast them before they can Stone Edge. Of course, Extremespeed is a problem, but you have Gengar for that. Obviously, that kind of solution is another of saying "I'll try to outplay it", but I don't want to mess with the team too much.

 

[Dark Azelf]

Hp Fire >> T-Bolt on Gar, its much better than t-bolt in this metagame. So you dont actually LOSE to scizor, Meta, Zong, Jirachi, Sp.Def Payback forry (who can set on 4/6 of your team)etc. :/

T-Bolt kinda sucks, all it hits is like Gyarados (who cant take shadow balls) and cune who cant beat Celebi (or Zapdos) lol :/

You will want a fire move on mence or SkarmBliss walls your entire team which is kinda sad.

Also at the moment you cant beat stall effectively either and lack anything to break walls.

 

[.Aero]

You wanted to know about the coding. It looks pretty good, but randomly cutting off each line less than halfway across the page makes the thing a headache to read.

Anyway, I don't get some of this team...like Jolly CB Scizor. Jolly is practically defeating the purpose of something that expects to go last unless it's using Bullet Punch. Extra power for hitting stuff with U-Turn and Bullet Punch is way more useful than outspeeding a tiny handful of threats. Also, I have a feeling you were just buying into the 8 SDef EV Scizor hype that has been going around this forum lately and that you've never actually been in such a situation, since your Scizor is always going to be faster because of its Jolly nature. Speaking of that hype, I don't think it really matters that much where the 8 EVs go. Besides, you might be in a position where you need to revenge kill a Scizor at ~70% health, and I'd assume you'd much rather kill it right away than take a Superpower yourself (and that is very likely given your team and its Scizor weakness). Scizor isn't going to be 100% all the time, especially taking SR damage and resisted attacks. Also, no one in their right mind is going to Superpower an opposing Scizor hoping to win a Speed tie (and losing a ton of health regardless of who wins it). I know that wasn't something you mentioned, but I've heard it so I figured I'd weight in... It would probably be much more useful for falling behind the opposing Scizor for U-Turn, but losing to opposing Scizor always isn't always going to be beneficial. After all, they could use Superpower or something...

I'm not trying to say that 8 SDef is a bad idea, but I sort of doubt whether it really makes a difference. The whole scenario just seems to be over thought out if you ask me. Of course, using theorymon to counter (what at least appears to me to be) theorymon has its downsides as well, so it doesn't really matter, hahaha.

Next, Timid on Gengar. Modest is just asking to lose to pretty much everything. you lack Hidden Power Fire, so you don't even lose a speed point, and you'll beat a lot of Gengar with 350 Speed. Also, switching out of Scizor is a bad idea. you survive Bullet Punch after WoW, so you'll be able to see what move it's using. Also, I would consider a Hasty nature with Explosion >>> Thunderbolt. Killing Blissey is nice, but it's also useful for getting in a last hit. Gengar can actually do a lot of damage with Explosion and put things into KO range or KO them outright. IT also bypasses Suicune CM boosts and hits it hard if Celebi is dead. But I mean, you handle Waters pretty well as it is, so I don't know if Thunderbolt is totally necessary. Again, it doesn't really matter, but just some stuff to consider. whatever you do, use a +Speed nature though. It's essential.

Now, weaknesses. Scizor. It can beat your team up pretty easily, actually. Granted, it could get wasted switching into Gengar, but if WoW misses or the opponent just doesn't switch it into Gengar, you've got a problem, especially against the Swords Dancer. Salamence loses to Bullet Punch, and Celebi, even though it's faster and has HP Fire (???) is easy to pick off as it switches in with X-Scissor. You basically have to blow it up with Metagross or slowly chip away at its health until it dies, and neither option is particularly great. You could just use defensive Zapdos >>> Celebi to fix that.

Lucario and Heracross are basically the same, but you have Gengar to keep them in check somewhat (unless you use Salamence, but that makes sweeping with it pretty much impossible). Zapdos should help somewhat, though you'll still have trouble. Heracross weaks are basically inevitable, but watch out for Lucario. You run run a more offensive variant to outspeed Jolly sets and toast them before they can Stone Edge. Of course, Extremespeed is a problem, but you have Gengar for that. Obviously, that kind of solution is another of saying "I'll try to outplay it", but I don't want to mess with the team too much.

I did apparently fall into all that hype about that Scizor spread. :/ Now that you mention it, it really doesn't happen enough to be considered useful. Jolly will be changed to Adamant as well.

Timid on Gengar will also be changed to Timid for the added speed.

Now I was thinking Zapdos could work on this team as well (in place of Celebi in fact). It has access to T-Bolt, a healing move, HP [Grass] could possibly fill the Grass Knot role, and Heat Wave will help my Scizor weak. So this is a great suggestion, but I want surefire confirmation that I should switch Celebi for Zapdos.

Hp Fire >> T-Bolt on Gar, its much better than t-bolt in this metagame. So you dont actually LOSE to scizor, Meta, Zong, Jirachi, Sp.Def Payback forry (who can set on 4/6 of your team)etc. :/

T-Bolt kinda sucks, all it hits is like Gyarados (who cant take shadow balls) and cune who cant beat Celebi (or Zapdos) lol :/

You will want a fire move on mence or SkarmBliss walls your entire team which is kinda sad.

Also at the moment you cant beat stall effectively either and lack anything to break walls.

So for Mence, should I go that Fire Blast EV spread over the fully physical one to help with that SkarmBliss problem?

 

[Skip Shot]

Now I was thinking Zapdos could work on this team as well (in place of Celebi in fact). It has access to T-Bolt, a healing move, HP [Grass] could possibly fill the Grass Knot role, and Heat Wave will help my Scizor weak. So this is a great suggestion, but I want surefire confirmation that I should switch Celebi for Zapdos.



So for Mence, should I go that Fire Blast EV spread over the fully physical one to help with that SkarmBliss problem?

I prefer running Zapdos over Celebi. However, I don't like the 32 Spe EV spread, since Lucario outruns it, defeating one of the purposes of Zapdos (beat Luke, Magnezone, Scizor, Breloom, etc.) I might be wrong on the Luke part, but I've been using Zapdos as Lucario insurance for quite a while now.

I prefer a spread of 252 HP/ 176 Spe/ 80 Def @ Timid, T-bolt/HP Grass or Ice/ Heat Wave/ Roost. Outruns Lucario iirc, which means it dies to Heat Wave.

As for Mence, Fire Fang does more to Skarm and Bronzong than Fire Blast iirc, and allows you to run Max Attack and Speed.

 

[Pokedra]

Whoa, this is nearly exactly the same as Team Vandra lol

Anyways, about that SpD hype. It's really a nit-pick, it's something that could help you in a battle but it's nothing major. Sure, go for it if you like or use Standard, it's really up to you ;D

Okay, firstly for Mence, you could run a 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe and run Fire Fang which does more then Fire Blast after a DD anyway. Since you seem to have a problem with stall, maybe switch Mence over to MixMence as that breaks stall pretty well.

Salamence@ Life Orb
Nature : Rash / Mild
EV : 80 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 176 Spe
-Draco Meteor
-Brick Break
-Fire Blast
-Roost

^ Old MixMence, you could try new but I don't like that personally. 60 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 196 Spe also works.

Maybe put Leech Seed/Reflect on Celebi over HP Fire since it gives some nice support.

If you do change DDMence you might want to replace Swampert with something like DDGyarados or DDKingdra to clean-up with since Swamp really isn't doing much =(

 

[.Aero]

I had no clue how similar it was to Team Vandra (pokemon-wise) lol.

I realize I need a stall-breaker, but I really would rather keep Salamence as a DD version, and I will put Fire Fang on.

As for Celebi, I actually was thinking of replacing it with Zapdos, but if you could think of another stall breaker that would work well for this team, I could probably squeeze it in.

 

[Malevolent Mismagius]

I use an alternate spread on Meta. Although it is much more prone to fire attacks but you do have mence and pert. Leftovers, 204 HP/80 Atk/224 Def@ Adamant <------It's highly bulky and the power it packs is very godly how little is invested. Even if you decide not to use it you really should try it out.

 

[.Aero]

I use an alternate spread on Meta. Although it is much more prone to fire attacks but you do have mence and pert. Leftovers, 204 HP/80 Atk/224 Def@ Adamant <------It's highly bulky and the power it packs is very godly how little is invested. Even if you decide not to use it you really should try it out.

Interesting. ;D I'll be sure to try it out actually. Seems like it'll be able to handle well for some late game sweeping, which is actually what I want to do with him.

 

[Black Ice]

Your team is pretty MixApe weak. The only Pokemon on your team that isn't OHKO'd is Zapdos, who I think may be OHKO'd with Fire Blast after Stealth Rocks, but you have some HP investments so I'm not really sure about that. Still, you're 2HKO'd at worst.

Just wanted to point that out :)

 

[.Aero]

Conclusion

So now I hope that I created a well balanced team that can deal with most of the OU threats. I won't really know if it handles well until I make my threat list, but please help me out with any problems you may see. As stated above, I want reasoning and suggestions if I have a weakness to certain pokemon and such.

I don't want to be an a-hole or anything, but I did state quite clearly that if you notice a weakness in my team, I want suggestions to help it out. :/ (However, thanks for pointing that out.)

So if you do have any suggestions, please state them. My only hope with this team at stopping MixApe would be EQ with Salamence, and even still, I don't know how many DD's it'll take to outspeed him. :/

 

[Black Ice]

Oh, sorry >.> Vaporeon, Starmie, Suicune and Tentacruel are really the only things that I can think of right now that will completely stop an Infernape, but repeated SR damage and outspeeding with Gengar will probably stop it. It only takes one DD from Mence to outspeed Infernape. Suicune and Starmie still take heavy damage from Grass Knot though.

Since you have 2 flying types, you could also use a Rapid Spinner to get rid of SR. I don't know where one would fit in though, but...Starmie kinda kills two birds with one stone, as a Rapid Spinner who kinda counters Infernape to some extent >.>

 

[.Aero]

Oh, sorry >.> Vaporeon, Starmie, Suicune and Tentacruel are really the only things that I can think of right now that will completely stop an Infernape, but repeated SR damage and outspeeding with Gengar will probably stop it. It only takes one DD from Mence to outspeed Infernape. Suicune and Starmie still take heavy damage from Grass Knot though.

Since you have 2 flying types, you could also use a Rapid Spinner to get rid of SR. I don't know where one would fit in though, but...Starmie kinda kills two birds with one stone, as a Rapid Spinner who kinda counters Infernape to some extent >.>

If what you say is true (mainly Gengar) then I don't have a problem with Infernape. :/ If I get SR up (which is almost guaranteed) then he'll lose 25% upon switching in.

Gengar Shadow Ball > MixApe - Damage: 77.82% - 91.47% - OHKO

And if I were to have Salamence out and I predict a switch, I'll easily get that DD in to take him down.

SR does do 25% to two of my pokes, but I don't see Zapdos being hurt as much by that. He has Roost, which can heal that off. So far, I haven't had much problem with SR. Maybe if it becomes a little too team wrecking, then I'll think about getting a Rapid Spinner in there.

 

[Black Ice]

SR does 12.5% to Infernape, not 25%. But I guess there's still a decent chance that he'll be OHKO'd, or if he's not then Scizor can finish it. Rapid Spin support on Infernape's team doesn't matter too much, I guess.

What if your Gengar is out though? It's not really too hard to lure in a ghost and pick it off with Pursuit or whatever for revenge killing.

EDIT: Ran some calcs, and Zapdos is just 5 HP from being OHKO'd by Infernape's LO Fire Blast after SR, assuming max damage.

I guess you won't have a problem with Infernape if you keep either one of those alive. The rest of your team looks good though.

 

[.Aero]

Lol, really? Only 12.5%...man...I'm so terrible at knowing resists...wow...I feel like a major noob...again.

Anyway, thanks for doing those calcs. ^^ Looks like I can handle him then. :D