Nasty Domination (Retired OU RMT)

[Skip Shot]

Intro​

I've been playing on Pokemon Online a lot more often than Shoddy nowadays mainly because I like the graphics better and the chat isn't full of turns of reiterated arguments about this Pokemon and that Pokemon and a whole bunch of other junk. It's mainly about tourneys or just having fun. Anyways, I decided to take a shot at getting to the top of the Beta Server ladder with an OU team, and made it pretty far before I started dropping in ratings once again- getting up to the top 50 on the leaderboard in just 2 days. Considering all of the gimmicky teams on Pokemon Online, it was a pretty successful team to be able to do that.​

Strategy​

This team was built around a Grass/Water/Fire core that could pretty much rip through enemy teams with little effort, with Infernape, Celebi, and Gyarados leading the charge. Infernape ripped through several teams with its mixed set, Gyarados was able to take a lot of hits with its Bulky Dragon Dance set and punish enemies in return, and Celebi was a huge surprise factor in stopping teams with a Nasty Plot set. Backing up this core was Stealth Rock setup from Azelf, arguably one of the best leads in the metagame, scouting from Scizor, and a powerful revenge killer in the form of Starmie that stopped the majority of what the core could not.​

Sneak Peak​

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Team Overview​

Azelf @ Focus Sash
Naive Nature (+ Spe, - Sp. Def)
Ability: Levitate
252 Spa/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def​

Stealth Rock
Fire Blast
Taunt
Explosion​

With strong offensive capabilities in both the physical and special sides of the offensive spectrum and a very high speed, Azelf makes for a very potent lead, almost always able to guarantee Stealth Rock setup. Taunt allows Azelf to shut down leads like Swampert, Smeargle, Bronzong, and other leads that attempt to set up Stealth Rock as Azelf does. Azelf can then proceed to set up Stealth Rock. Most of the time, Azelf will usually die afterwards, which doesn't matter too much since something on the opponent's team will finish it off if the lead doesn't.​

Stealth Rock set up is extremely crucial to this team because it helps net a lot of KOs that the offensive core may miss otherwise. Azelf does a great job at ensuring that Stealth Rock is set up.​

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature (+ Atk, - Sp. Atk)
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP, 252 Atk, 8 Spe​

Bullet Punch
Superpower
Pursuit
U-Turn​

Scizor is truly one of the best scouts in the game. It has the ability to severely weaken opponents that switch into it with U-Turn, giving the offensive core plenty of breathing room to sweep with. Bulky Rotom-A can take about 35% from U-Turn, just to show you how much Scizor can dent teams with this move. Outside of U-Turn, Scizor makes a great check to Choiced Gengar locked into Shadow Ball or Focus Blast, Breloom, Scarf Heracross, Scarf Tyranitar, and a whole host of other sweepers thanks to its extremely powerful Bullet Punch, which can smash through quite a lot of stuff in the current OU metagame. Max HP also gives Scizor a nice amount of bulk. One scenario I found quite common was a +1 Suicune dealing about 50% to Scizor with Surf, Scizor hitting Cune for about 50% with U-Turn, and then going to Celebi or Starmie for the quick kill with a Life Orb boosted Energy Ball or Thunderbolt. This really shows how well Scizor can take neutral hits thanks to Max HP EVs- but of course, Fire attacks rip it into shreds, and Gyarados laughs at it.​

Infernape @ Life Orb
Naive Nature (+ Spe, - Sp. Def)
Ability: Blaze
252 Sp. Atk, 192 Spe, 64 Atk

Close Combat
Hidden Power Ice
Grass Knot
Fire Blast

Infernape was one of the biggest reasons that this team was succesful. This is because with its wide coverage moveset, Infernape can pretty much rip through whatever it pleases in OU. Infernape also can really tear through teams that were previously weakened enough through Scizor or Starmie. Close Combat and a little bit of residual damage can 2HKO Vaporeon on the switch, Zapdos is 2HKOed by Fire Blast regardless of Stealth Rock, and a lot of other scenarios like this allowed Ape to come through and shine- whether it was beating down walls early game or cleaning up late-game.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Timid Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
Ability: Natural Cure
252 Spa/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def

Hydro Pump
Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin
Recover

One of the most underrated yet most powerful moves in the metagame... Life Orb Starmie Hydro Pump. This move can hit like a truck, OHKOing Scizor, Rotom, Tyranitar, Flygon(?), and a whole other host of Pokemon, as well as being able to 2HKO a lot of other threats. Anything not phazed too much by Starmie's Hydro Pump says hi to Thunderbolt (Gyarados, Suicune, Vaporeon, etc.) or Ice Beam (Breloom, Shaymin, Dragonite, etc.) or Stealth Rock (Shedinja rofl). This powerful trio of moves that can smack around all of OU combined with Starmie's high Speed makes it one of the most potent threats in the metagame. Recover allows it to hang in there for that much longer, giving Starmie the chance to rip through even more of an opponent's team.

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Jolly Nature (+ Spe, - Sp. Atk)
Ability: Levitate
252 Atk/252 Spe/ 4 HP

Earthquake
Outrage
U-Turn
Thunderpunch

Celebi turned out to really be the weak link on the team, so removing it gave me room to put in this guy, which does several things that really help out this team. Firstly, Flygon can absorb Thunder Wave, which saves Infernape and Starmie from being crippled (temporarily in the case of Starmie, of course). Next, Scarf Flygon can also effectively revenge kill Tyranitar, Jolteon, and +1 Gyarados as well, forcing it out with Thunderpunch. On top of that, Flygon also helps out as a secondary scout behind Scizor, and the two of them can actually U-Turn to each other often to force out threats (i.e. Scizor goes to Flygon when Gyara comes in, Flygon goes to Scizor as some metagame weak Ice type with Ice Shard or something comes in, etc.) I haven't tested Flygon in battle yet, but it will hopefully be able to serve its purpose effectively.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Impish Nature (+ Def, - Sp. Atk)
Abililty: Intimidate
248 HP/ 248 Def/ 12 Spe (wait, why does smogon recommend 12 Speed EVs lol?)

Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Rest
Sleep Talk

Gyarados was the one Pokemon I could count on to help me out of tough mid-game situations against physical sweepers: Intimidate, force the switch and set up with Dragon Dance, then begin weakening the opponent through its coverage which means that very little can laugh at it: Breloom and Celebi are at least 2HKOed by Ice Fang, whilst Zapdos and other Gyarados fall to Stone Edge, and Waterfall tears through Heatran, Tyranitar, and the like. However, Gyarados is now changed to be able to take on status that the majority of this team will hate receiving and being able to be a nice check to several OU threats, including Machamp, Lucario, and Infernape. With Gyarados' bulk, it should be able to definitely take on these threats with ease.

Faults​

Hey, D_A or Anti or Aragorn were most likely to spot these anyways, so might as well list the major ones that I found down here:​

With the new changes came some new threats that need to be looked at:​

Gengar: The best way this team can take it on in its current condition is through constant switching, which can be a pain with Stealth Rock whittling away at everybody's health.​

I'm sure there are other smaller or major threats, but this is really all of the biggest ones out there.​

This team has definitely been my most successful team ever, and I hope that I can use this team as a great experience that will help me build up better teams and advance to the top in the future.​

 

[.Gamer]

Hey skippy. Cool team seems like a pretty basic balanced team imo. (I'm assuming you used this post-mence becase otherwise wtf were you thinking of with using a gwf core?) Offensive Cune looks like it can give you some trouble but Starmie can scare it away with T-Bolt and Celebi can threaten with GK, even though they fear HP Electric and Ice Beam, respectively.

I also like how everything on this team has at least 1 attack that can hurt breloom lol.

i could elaborate more but im tired and AB/D_A will do it anyway. x)

 

[Anti]

Did you have to use white font -_-

Anyway, you don't need max Speed to beat Rash Raikou, it maxes at 329 Speed and since Infernape's max is somewhere in the 340s I don't know why you would take away from its attacking stats which are far more important to boost up unless a Speed tie with physical Infernape seems necessary (and obviously it's not).

Also F/W/G is nice and all but I'm not really sold on it for this team when two of the mons in it are plagued with LO recoil and the other is weak to Stealth Rock. What I'm trying to get at is that defensively this team seems really weak to me lol, I definitely think that it would be a good idea to replace Celebi as you mentioned since, lol, it's just "wait until it's going to use HP Fire and then bring in Flygon" bait...and that's against teams that aren't prepared for Celebi.

The common denominator with the weaknesses you listed as well as the ones you didn't is that they're all faster or make you slower. Your resistances are definitely there but since everything bar Starmie has no survivability at all (and even then Starmie can have trouble finding a good spot to Recover) you're going to have trouble keeping the defensive core intact for the duration of the match.

I would try to get some Wish support for this team. Since nothing is really going to stop a DD Gyarados from taking down 2-3 Pokemon, Vaporeon is something to consider, but both Water-types are pretty crucial and 3 Water-types is silly. Of course, your Celebi replacement could just be something that sponges hits from the stuff that gives you trouble. Bronzong is definitely a good choice. It is one of the few Pokemon that reliably deals with Gengar, and obviously it takes out that other stuff as well. It can absorb Thunder Wave since hey, who cares if slow Bronzong is paralyzed? It does you you unbelievably vulnerable to any kind of Jolteon, however. It also invites Heatran to come in, and Gyarados can only come in on that so many times. You could also use your own Choice Scarf Flygon which also helps wioth that Gyarados issue (give it ThunderPunch). It deals with all of the problem Pokemon (and Thunder Wave) except ScarfGon, but honestly, it is so weak and usually spams U-Turn way too much for its own good to truly be threatening. In the hands of a good player it will probably be a problem though. My recommendation is Flygon though, especially since it's much more threatening than something like Bronzong (and it's slightly less stall bait with U-Turn).

Lastly, have you considered running a DD/Waterfall/RestTalk Gyarados over the one you have now? I don't really see much that offensive Gyarados is bringing to the table, but that Gyarados gives you a status absorber (Breloom can go die), a Heatran counter that won't wear out, an Infernape switch-in that doesn't basically sacrifice itself to win, a better answer to Machamp, and a MUCH better answer to Lucario. It's hard to tell how key Gyarados is to the offense but I've always found Leftovers offensive Gyarados to be underpowered and underwhelming (and the LO variant to be unbelievably quick to wear down), so I feel like it would be an upgrade.

Since it seems like I made a lot of suggestions/criticisms I'll just recap quickly:

ScarfGon >>> Celebad, more defensive Gyarados, max SAtk on Infernape taken from Speed, stop using white font. All of the alternate stuff I said is still there obviously in case you prefer those things.

 

[Skip Shot]

Haha sorry Anti, the background of my theme is pretty dark so I put in white font lol.

Anyways I have found the extra speed on Ape to be nice at times, but the special attack power will help, so I'll switch around the EVs.

I agree on the choice of RestTalk Gyara as well, since status is a pain to deal with through the use of two Natural cure users. I also don't have to worry too much in the case of threats that Gyarados would struggle dealing with more now (aka Zapdos and whatnot) when I make the jump from Celebi to Flygon.

So then as a result:

Azelf
Ape
Scizor
Flygon
Starmie
Gyarados

tbh that does seem a lil Gengar weak, but I guess with Flygon sporting resistances to HP Fire/ T-bolt and Starmie and Gyara cushioning Focus Blast and Scizor can come in on the Shadow Ball it could be checked, but the team would be worn down more as a result.

What if I put Thunder Wave Jirachi as a lead over Azelf? that could help with the Gengar issue since Starmie and Ape poop on it if its paralyzed.

 

[Dark Azelf]

If you're using Cro Gyara it needs needs NEEDS Toxic Spikes support, put a good SR+T-Spikes user over Azelf. This lets you outstall stuff like Celebi and it greatly wears down things like Vap etc. That being said though i do like CroGyara this metagame, it poops all over Breloom and Heatran and not much stops it really once it gets going. You'll need to boot ape for a ghost or something though, Gengar or Rotom both work.


Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP/132 Def/32 Spd/96 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
---

- LO Tran never 3HKO's you with Fire Blast.
- Celebi never 3hko's you with Grass Knot.
- Beats + speed Lucario and Gliscor after a DD.
- HP Evs round down SR damage.

Lastly give Starmie Rapid Spin over either Ice Beam or Recover to help support your team and help Gyarados, this also lures in Rotom rather well so you can weaken it for Gyara/Scizor.

 

[Skip Shot]

The thing is, I feel CroGyara gets help from Toxic Spikes best if I want it to stay in once and just rip through teams in one fell swoop. That's not really going to happen with CroGyara on an offensive team like this one, as Gyarados will be switching in mainly to cushion attacks that threaten my other sweepers or take status that I see coming my way. The bulky waters that wall CroGyara are already taken care of through the use of Starmie's Thunderbolt/ Hydro Pump (in Pert's case, who is 2HKOed) and Infernape's Grass Knot. Scizor also severely weakens them with U-Turn, so I feel that Toxic Spikes really isn't neccessary. Also Ape, Scizor, and Flygon rip into Celebi.

Rapid Spin can work with Starmie, but then Starmie is going to go down pretty quickly without Recover, and I'd prefer to keep Ice Beam to force out Celebi/Dragonite and whatnot, so it's kind of a tough call there. I'll look at it though.

 

[Dark Azelf]

..................

The thing is, I feel CroGyara gets help from Toxic Spikes best if I want it to stay in once and just rip through teams in one fell swoop.

No it wears them down over the course of the battle. Gyara shares several common checks with Ape (see Vap who i will come to later) and they get massacred by T-Spikes.

That's not really going to happen with CroGyara on an offensive team like this one, as Gyarados will be switching in mainly to cushion attacks that threaten my other sweepers or take status that I see coming my way.


If you're using CroGyara on your team you must be able to support its downfalls or it becomes dead weight.

The bulky waters that wall CroGyara are already taken care of through the use of Starmie's Thunderbolt/ Hydro Pump (in Pert's case, who is 2HKOed) and Infernape's Grass Knot.

Thats cool and all but waters wont stay in on Starmie unless you're playing a moron. -.- This is why no one on this website hardly can break stall as they are clueless about opening up sweeps, THEY WILL SWITCH OUT AND WILL KEEP COMING BACK IN TO FORCE YOU OUT, thus making the pokemon dead weight, this is exactly the reason posted my "lures and offensive combo's thread". And the things that Grass Knot hits still wall Ape (Vap - who walls your entire team, thats tells you how good this team is on the offensive lol. Toxic Spikes at least stop it and weaken it for your team.) or wont be switching in in on Ape regardless (Cune for example).

Scizor also severely weakens them with U-Turn, so I feel that Toxic Spikes really isn't neccessary. Also Ape, Scizor, and Flygon rip into Celebi.


Uh what waters stay in to take STAB U-Turns from 591 Att ? :/

Celebi cripples 2 of them also since they have T-Wave and HP Fire very commonly and again WILL BE SWITCHING OUT of Flygon. That isn't doing anything when it can come back in all game and keep walling your Gyara. Like i said you need to build your team around it better.

comments in bold.

Rapid Spin can work with Starmie, but then Starmie is going to go down pretty quickly without Recover, and I'd prefer to keep Ice Beam to force out Celebi/Dragonite and whatnot, so it's kind of a tough call there. I'll look at it though.

Does it matter about being worn down quickly ? Since i mean Starmie isn't walling anything and the things it does wall are taken care of Gyarados (see Infernape). Id rather remove rocks and spikes since this team is so easy to set them up on lol. :/

Also Nite and Celebi arent problems for this team really so losing Ice Beam wouldn't hurt too much.

 

[Skip Shot]

Well PO players are kinda bad outside of the top 100 so I mean yea lol.

Thing is, I'm not trying to build around CroGyara, so I guess the better thing to do instead of reworking my team around it would be to replace CroGyara with a different status absorber, preferably another fighting resist. Maybe RestTalk Rotom would work?

 

[Hatchet]

WOW, Realy Strong Team You Got There :) But I Realy Do Not Like Gyaraidos.