My Personal Best [OU] Team

[$lowking2]

INTRO
I have not posted to this site in a very long time, but recently I got back into Pokémon Battling and endeavored on a little project of mine. This goal? To build an amazing OU team. I have only worked on this team for about 2 weeks(ish), so it is still open to much debate. With out further adieux, let's jump right into this team preview.

TEAM PREVIEW
Hydreigon, Donphan, Volcarona, Rotom- W, Toxicroak, Skarmory. (PC won't let me post URL's without 15 posts, but as soon as I achieve that number, I will update this.)

OK, now that we have a basic look at the team, you can see that it is a well rounded team with only a few major weaknesses I can think of. Respectively, they have their counters and checks, so let's take a look a little bit more in depth.

MOVESETS
Now, I directly copied this list from PS' import option, so it may look a little bit funky.

Hydreighorah (Hydreigon) (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast

Goodyear (Donphan) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Toxic

QuiverMeTimbers (Volcarona) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 216 Def / 240 HP / 52 Spd
Bold Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Roost

Sc-Rotom (Rotom-Wash) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
- Thunderbolt

NWA (Toxicroak) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Poison Touch
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Cross Chop
- Sucker Punch
- Ice Punch

Postcard (Skarmory) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 200 SDef / 56 Atk
Impish Nature
- Whirlwind
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Roost

REASONS FOR CHOOSING
Starting with Hydreigon, here is a compiled list of why I chose these Pokémon. :)

Hydreigon
Well, this Pokémon makes up part of the core for the team, and was the first Pokémon I chose to base the team off of, seeing as though this is my favorite OU Pokémon. It has beastly stats, including a monster SpA, which many OU Pokémon seem to lack.

Donphan
Originally, my team consisted of Hydreigon, Rotom-W, Celebi, Deoxys-D, Terrakion, and Skarmory. I replaced D-D with this Pokémon to buff up my team's ability to take Bug-Type hits. The only viable moveset this had contained Stealth Rocks, so I removed stealth rocks from my Skarm and added spikes, because the loss of D-D meant the loss of spikes. This was a big asset to the team, because we also needed a spinner. Donphan is a very key component to the team's chemistry.

Volcarona
Celebi was doing almost nothing to my team, so I took her off. With this loss, I needed a new Poké that could boost SpDs and SpAs like no one's business. The only viable option in my mind was Volcarona, seeing as though I need a Fire STABer. Once again, this Pokémon is highly valuable to the team, leading me to believe that these first 3 pokes make up the core of this team.

Toxicroak
At this point in the team building process, my team just lost a Physical Attacker and had a major weakness to ice and water. Toxicroak seemed like a very valuable asset at the time of team building, but has proven not as important as one may think. Long story short, Toxicroak is the most expendable part of my team, and I am very open to better suggestions in this slot. Help appreciated.

Skarmory
Skarmory is my main defender, being able to set up 3 layers of spikes, brave bird when needed, whirlwind away Baton Passing teams (hence the nickname Postcard ;) ) and roost when low on health. ATM, Skarm seems like an irreplaceable component to my team.

OUTRO
What do I hope to achieve for this RMT? Well, I need help just team building, for I have a tourney coming up. Also, I need advice for taking down common threats to this team (i.e. Drizzle Jellicent, and Chansey/Blissey), which tend to be walls. Help is very much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this RMT, everyone. Have a nice day.

--$lowking

P.S. Please test this team before leaving feedback. Thanks.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Offensive Donphan is now the way to go in B2/W2:
-Rapid Spin
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge/Stealth Rock/Head Smash
-Ice Shard
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy

(If you still want to use Impish, you can go with 252 HP/56 Atk/200 Def for a bit more power behind its moves)

On Volcarona, more Speed would be preferred (232 HP/164 Def/112 Spe).

Toxicroak should never be seen without Dry Skin. While you said that Toxicroak can check Water Pokémon in your post, Toxicroak itself has Poison Touch, which kills its ability to check Water Pokémon. Jellicent should be a good fit on the team, as it blocks opposing attempts to Rapid Spin away your hazards:
-Scald
-Will-o-Wisp/Toxic
-Recover
-Taunt
Nature: Bold
EVs: 248 HP/216 Def/44 Spe
Item: Leftovers

or
-Scald/Surf
-Shadow Ball/Ice Beam
-Will-o-Wisp/Toxic
-Recover
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/36 Def/220 SDef
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb

or
-Water Spout
-Hydro Pump/Surf/Scald
-Shadow Ball
-Ice Beam/Giga Drain
Nature: Modest
EVs: 172 HP/252 SAtk/84 Spe
Item: Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb

 

[$lowking2]

Thank you, PlatinumDude. All changes have been made. If all else fails with Toxicroak, I will be replacing him with Jellicent.

 

[Bossk749]

A couple of suggestions I may make with Toxicroak (there's a tl;dr at the end, this is kind of me rambling with Toxicroak options).

If using a Swords Dance set, there's no need to test the accuracy of Cross Chop. With Dry Skin able to recover from Water types which will help with the Life Orb damage that you're taking; on top of that, however, you should use Drain Punch in order to recover some lost HP from Life Orb, as you can't rely completely on Dry Skin for recovery.

An option for a Swords Dance set is to use Substitute and lose a coverage move, but that's up to you and I don't really recommend it. You're doubling your attack with every Swords Dance, and since Toxicroak isn't the fastest thing you may want to go with a Jolly nature to outspeed as much as possible especially base 85s running on a neutral nature. You could invest more EVs into some bulk if you want to focus on survivability, as its HP stat isn't useless, but I recommend your current EV spread for a Swords Dance set.

tl;dr

-Replace Cross Chop with Drain Punch, hell even Brick Break if you want that screen-destroying support if it bothers you
-Use a Jolly nature due to having the ability to double attack
-Dry Skin over Poison Touch always

 

[$lowking2]

Ok. I am trying out PD's Jellicent option ATM, but I am not sure if I like it as much as Toxicroak. True, it does have many great features, but I think I like the synergy that Toxicroak brings. I will try your Toxicroak options very soon. Thanks for the reply. :)

 

[Bossk749]

No problem; Toxicroak is one of my most used Pokemon in OU so I have a lot of experience with him compared to most Pokemon.

 

[$lowking2]

So, a quicky update here. I made all of the changes PlatinumDude suggested, excluding those regarding Toxicroak, and took Bossk's Toxicroak suggestion. I went on Pokémon Showdown with this team and went undefeated in 15 games. Thanks guys. You really helped out. :)

 

[Bossk749]

That's awesome to hear! Happy we could help!

 

[PokeMastro]

I have been fiddling around and made a "baton pass team" consisting of Skarmory for Def Wall, Blissey as SpD Wall, Espeon and Huntail as Passers, and Gengar and Heracross as SpA and Atk sweepers respectively, not a great team at all but have yet to lose, usually since I baton pass to espeon and they usually use a move reflected by magic bounce, then pass to heracross and sweep, haven't needed to use Gengar or blissey at all so far in my matches, but that is pure luck