Hyper Offence

[Oh - Romeo]

Hi!


Introduction
After spending a lot of time creating (and tasting success with) my Trick Room team, I decided to broaden my horizons and pursue other interesting battle styles, tactics and strategies. I looked into creating a weather team, but was put off by just how generic and common all the teams are, so opted against that particular approach to battling. Instead, I looked into Stall, and created a relatively successful Poison Stall team.
I found, however, that the results were too turbulent, and that the team was too dependent on 'setting up' to really dictate every battle I entered.
Eventually, I stumbled across Hyper Offence and was instantly intrigued.

I am too tired and in the wrong forum to detail the exact mechanics of this style, so here is a link to an excellent (albeit slightly outdated) guide to Hyper Offence for all of you unfamiliar with it: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61631

In an EXTREMELY generalized nutshell, a Hyper Offence team will consist of at least five Pokemon that are all able to set-up, sweep and single-handedly win the game. A player will lose 3 of their Pokemon in taking down my Dragon Dance Gyarados, only to be then confronted with a Swords Dance Garchomp, and so on.

I've been battling with this team for a while now, and as I learn more about the style of battle, I am making more correct decisions and winning the vast majority of battles. I find that a lot of teams just simply aren't prepared for the raw power that they are confronted with.

Anyways, without further ado:


Team at a glance

In-Depth

Einstein (Azelf) @Light Clay
Timid
Levitate
252 HP / 252 Sp.D / 4 Spe
- Taunt
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Stealth Rock

Taunt Bait, I know, I know. Aim of the game, basically, is to set up Duel Screens, Stealth Rocks if I can, and then die. Einstein isn't a totally indispensable member of the team, but heck, he sure does help! Taunt is to stop myself getting taunted. Duel Screens allows some space for maneuver when it comes to my sweepers setting up. Stealth Rocks isn't vital, but if I can get them up it helps, often turning a 2HKO into a OHKO.

Riot (Gyarados) @Life Orb
Adamant
Moxie
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Even after just one Dragon Dance, this guy savagely rips apart, on average, at LEAST two of the opponent's team. Waterfall for obvious STAB, this is his main source of damage. Earthquake covers his weakness and Stone Edge is for anything else. Am in love with this brute.

Zulu (Scizor) @Life Orb
Adamant
Technician
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Sp.D
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Superpower

Basically, she sets up with Swords Dance, and then proceeds to rip big holes into the opponent’s team with priority STAB Bullet Punch. Bug Bite is for more STAB and Superpower provides useful coverage against the likes of Ferrothorn and such. Don’t mess with this girl!

Streex (Garchomp) @Persim Berry
Jolly
Sand Veil
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Fang
- Earthquake

What’s an offensive team without this bad boy?! Sand Veil over Rough Skin, because of the abundance of Sandstorm weather teams out there, it is intensely satisfying to use their own strategy against them in the form of hax. SD’d Outrage is, well, disgusting. Persim Berry to cure the confusion, allowing me to safely embark on another rampage. Earthquake is Earthquake. Fire Fang for Ferrothorns and whatever. Also, +10 cookies to whoever can tell me where I got the name Streex from ^_^;

Shiva (Cloyster) @Focus Sash
Jolly
Skill Link
252 atk / 252 Spe / 4 Hp
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard

Another of my Femme Fatales! Interestingly, Shiva often acts as a kinda revenge killer. Sometimes, the opponent is able to set up their own sweeper. In the event of one of my sweepers being KO’d by an opponent’s sweeper, Shiva Shell Smashes, and is saved by her Sash, and then continues to neautralise the threat with an Icicle Spear. Then, if I’m lucky and the opponent isn’t running any kind of priority, Shiva can embark on her own sweep. Remember, the aim of this team is to be constantly barraging the opponent with fatal blows, leaving them unable to set up their own strategies. Every one of my Pokemon is able to sweep, and win the game single-handedly.

Glitch (Metagross) @Life Orb
Adamant
Clear Body
252 Atk / 208 Spe / 48 HP
- Agility
- Meteor Mash
- Thunder Punch
- Earthquake

A personal favourite of mine, but, in honesty, the weak link of my team. This final slot is up for grabs, and I appreciate any recommendations you can put forth to me. Agility lets it hit first, and he then proceeds to sweep with Meteor Mash, using TP and EQ as and when needed. Gets the job done but is the most unlikely of my Pokemon to go on a match-winning sweep.




And there you have it. I hope you like my team. Be critical in your responses, but fair and not unkind. I hope you like my team...I am certainly enjoying just rolling over my unexpecting victims!
Again, thanks for reading!

 

[kaiser soze]

Garchomp is on the ubers list here and on Smogon....

 

[Oh - Romeo]

On PO, I play on the PokeBattleCentre server, where he is still OU :')

EDIT: Apologies for not stating that beforehand

 

[Farfan]

Hey, you have a good team! Here are some changes:

@Azelf: Run Timid with 252 Speed / 252 HP because you need speed to put screens, taunt etc. I suggest using Espeon over Azelf, he's a Double Screener too and can reflect any Taunt, entry hazard or status that can screw your team.

@Gyarados: Seems fine to me, you can use Jolly too because of Moxie.

@Scizor: That's a Bulky Set, if you want an all out attacker I suggest the Choice Band set with Bullet Punch, Superpower, U-turn and Pursuit. If you want to keep with that moveset, use this EV spread: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpDef

@Garchomp: oh hai. Uber. I would use fire blast for more power, and most things that are weak to fire have low sp def (such as ferro, scizor and most steel types)

@Cloyster: You should have a water attack > Ice Shard, maybe Hydro Pump or Razor Shell?

@Metagross: seems fine, but ice punch > thunderpunch gets more coverage

Your team is too much physicall. A nice physicall wall such as Skarmory, Ferro or Gliscor destroys this team.
You really need a special sweeper imo

 

[Oh - Romeo]

Hey, you have a good team! Here are some changes:

@Azelf: Run Timid with 252 Speed / 252 HP because you need speed to put screens, taunt etc. I suggest using Espeon over Azelf, he's a Double Screener too and can reflect any Taunt, entry hazard or status that can screw your team.

@Gyarados: Seems fine to me, you can use Jolly too because of Moxie.

@Scizor: That's a Bulky Set, if you want an all out attacker I suggest the Choice Band set with Bullet Punch, Superpower, U-turn and Pursuit. If you want to keep with that moveset, use this EV spread: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpDef

@Garchomp: oh hai. Uber. I would use fire blast for more power, and most things that are weak to fire have low sp def (such as ferro, scizor and most steel types)

@Cloyster: You should have a water attack > Ice Shard, maybe Hydro Pump or Razor Shell?

@Metagross: seems fine, but ice punch > thunderpunch gets more coverage

Your team is too much physicall. A nice physicall wall such as Skarmory, Ferro or Gliscor destroys this team.
You really need a special sweeper imo

Hey! Thanks for the compliment and for your input!

@Azelf: The Espeon idea is a really good one! I never thought about her. She definately seems to be a better duel screen setter, being immune to Taunt and messing up the opponent's lead a lot of the time in the process. I was also thinking of using a Memento Uxie...after he sets up, just commit Hari Kari, the -2 drops in the opponent's attack stats will only make it easier for my next sweeper to set up. I will try both out. Thanks a lot!

@Gyara: Could do. TBH though, Gyara pretty much outspeeds most things with a DD with Adamant. I think I'd prefer the extra power.

@Scizor: I use the Choice Band set in a mono-steel team that I made. It is really very good. But with Hyper Offence, it's important that you switch out as little as possible. It is better to sacrifice a Pokemon in Hyper Offence than to switch it out. That being the case, being able to choose a different move is just too invaluable to sacrifice for a little extra power. She seems to get OHKO's with a Life Orb after a SD anyways.

@Chompy: Yeah. He's Uber according to Smogon, but I frequent PokeBattleCentre where he is still OU. In any case, I am open to suggestions with regards to replacing him. Any thoughts?

@Metagross: Another I am willing to replace. If you've got any suggestions let me know. As you suggested, maybe a special sweeper? I can't think of any of the top of my head, I'm pretty tired. Porygon-Z maybe?

Again, thanks for your input

 

[Utopian]

1) garchomp is uber
2) you spelled "offense" wrong
3) your whole team except for azelf are physical attackers, try using other specially based attackers such as volcarona and virizion

 

[~Ace]

1) garchomp is uber
2) you spelled "offense" wrong
3) your whole team except for azelf are physical attackers, try using other specially based attackers such as volcarona and virizion

You can spell offence in 2 ways

America - Offense
UK - Offence

 

[Farfan]

BACK ON TOPIC

There are a lot of special attackers, here are some of them:
Rotom-W, Chandelure, Volcarona, Gengar, Heatran, MixApe, Latios, Latias, Magnezone, Reuniclus, Starmie, Virizion...

 

[ParaChomp]

Garchomp is uber and in your case, replace Azelf with Uxie.

 

[Cruelty]

Jellicent+Ferrothorn wall your team to hell and back,all the while crippling everything in sight.
Sableye can also cause HUGE problems here,as it can easy make Azelf Struggle.It also burns every.single.thing.
I see your Gyarados doesn't carry taunt to stop Skarm from simply Whirlwinding all your boosts away.
Scizor needs Roost as it absolutely cannot take repeated beatings and needs it to properly set up and recover all that LO Recoil.

 

[Witch of 'Cos]

@Gyara: Could do. TBH though, Gyara pretty much outspeeds most things with a DD with Adamant. I think I'd prefer the extra power.

The one thing that you get by running Jolly is outspeeding Jolteon, which is becoming slightly common as a counter to Thunderus.

Your team is too much physicall. A nice physicall wall such as Skarmory, Ferro or Gliscor destroys this team.
You really need a special sweeper imo

3) your whole team except for azelf are physical attackers, try using other specially based attackers such as volcarona and virizion

There are a lot of special attackers, here are some of them:
Rotom-W, Chandelure, Volcarona, Gengar, Heatran, MixApe, Latios, Latias, Magnezone, Reuniclus, Starmie, Virizion...

No offence(and no pun intended), but you obviously do not get the idea behind Hyper Offence. You are MEANT to have all sweepers on on side of the spectrum. This is because the majority of teams will only carry one physical wall, so there will only be ONE Gliscor or ONE Skarmory to stop you. And at the appearance of the first one, a sweeper will beat it on the head with a boosted attack, dealing upwards of 50%, and meaning that the next time you attempt a sweep, the wall will no longer be able to stand up to a threat. So sure, each of the pokemon are hard countered by a lot of physical walls, but as a group they beat down and wear away at them until the walls can no longer take it.

And now to actually try and help you, as I (personally) think that I know a bit about this playstyle.

For your lead, Azelf is entirely outclassed by Deoxys-E. It's faster, bulkier and learns the same moves. A simple Jolly 252HP/252Speed allow it to get screens up before a lot of things, and it can run Dual Screens, Taunt and SR/Spikes just as well, if not better, than Azelf.

Your main core needs a bit of reworking, as there is little offensive synergy between them, although they are quite good, as is. The was I see it, HO should run two Swords Dancers, two Dragon Dancers and one Agility/Rock Polish-er for the lategame. This means that you are best able to beat down the walls that oppose you, and do the most damage. As your Scizor stands right now, it is easily one of the best pokes for this style, although you should probably change the spread to a more offensive 252Atk/252Spe, in order to get the speed on some things such as other Scizors, Jellicent, and Politoed that invest little. Garchomp also works very well, easily able to take advantage of dual screens with his natural bulk, and so keeping him on the team is good. Although consider replacing Persim Berry with either a Life Orb, or a Haban/Yache Berry.

Now onto the things that may need replacing. your current lategamer is a mix of Metagross and Cloyster. Metagross is simply not powerful enough to cut it in this generation without attack boosts, and Cloyster is very predictable and also very easy to counter. Running a Focus Sash is usually a bad idea, due to the prevalence of hazards out there. For this reason, I suggest that you replace Metagross with a Dual Boosting Terrakion. This set rips through so many things, and allows it to serve as either a lategame cleaner or a midgame wallbreaker.

Terrakion @ Air Balloon (Justified)
Jolly 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Swords Dance | Rock Polish | Close Combat | Stone Edge

The other core of a HO team is the Dragon Dancers, which usually come out in the middle to late game in order to either break down a team, or clear one out. While Gyarados is a perfectly acceptable DD'er, he simply lacks the same speed and power that others of this generation can bring to the table. One such example of something that simply does the job better is Haxorus, who also has amazing offensive synergy with Garchomp, due to them having almost identical counters. A Dragon Dance Haxorus has amazing power behind it, able to 2HKO Ferrothorn after a single DD with Outrage. In the last slot you can run either of Stone Edge or Brick Break, depending on whether you are more worried about getting a strong hit on the likes of Skarm, or Brick Break to hit Ferrothorn hard. With this change, Cloyster is the only thing that would need a bit of fixing up. What I suggest is replacing it with a Dragon Dance Scrafty. This Pokemon would give you a key early game wallbreaker, that is easily able to set up under screens, and also helps against the Jellicent/Ferrothorn combo with his amazing dual STABs. Running Jolly and max speed on this would be key, as it allows your Scrafty to outspeed and OHKO the genies with Ice Punch, and the bulk lost by doing this is made up for by the screens that Deoxys will set up. The sets are:

Haxorus @ Life Orb (Rivalry)
Jolly 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Dragon Dance | Outrage | Earthquake | Stone Edge/Brick Break

Scrafty @ Life Orb (Moxie)
Jolly 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Dragon Dance | Hi Jump Kick | Crunch | Ice Punch


This means that the team ends up looking like DS Deoxys-S/DD Haxorus/DD Scrafty/SD Scizor/SD Garchomp/SDRP Terrakion. I realise that this would mean a major overhaul to you team, something that you may not want. However, the majority of the changes are simple upgrades of pokemon that may have been outclassed. Even if you don't follow all of my advice, I hope that some of it helped.

EDIT: <3 Street Sharks (though I didn't really like Streex himself)

 

[DarumakkaImposter]

1) garchomp is uber
2) you spelled "offense" wrong
3) your whole team except for azelf are physical attackers, try using other specially based attackers such as volcarona and virizion

Garchomp is uber and in your case, replace Azelf with Uxie.

On PO, I play on the PokeBattleCentre server, where he is still OU :')

EDIT: Apologies for not stating that beforehand

Does that answer everyone's argument? He's stated it before.

 

[Pansear the shiny]

replace azelf with uxie, and give it the mental herb!

not many people know this but mental herb actually cures a taunt!!!! letting you taunt them before they can taunt you (@_@)

 

[DarumakkaImposter]

It does? It says that it cures infatuation. o.o

Shiva (Cloyster) @Focus Sash
Jolly
Skill Link
252 atk / 252 Spe / 4 Hp
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard

You can give it a white herb to get rid of the defensive drop in power. Other Cloyster and stuff might be able to kill it since Focus Sash's ability stops when you aren't at full HP.

 

[GerbilGuy]

Why using Azelf when Deo-s is allowed?

 

[Remorph]

replace azelf with uxie, and give it the mental herb!

not many people know this but mental herb actually cures a taunt!!!! letting you taunt them before they can taunt you (@_@)

That's cool. Did you know Defog actually clears Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, Light Screen, and Reflect, as well as lowering evasiveness?

Off topic. Now I'm back on.

I like the idea of Hyper Offense. But your team is too phisicaly based. Add like, 2 special attackers.

 

[Oh - Romeo]

Wow, lots of replies

Okay, first things first:

As I, and my friend DarumakkaImposter have stated to all the people jumping on the 'Garchomp is uber' bandwagon, I play by PokeBattleCentre rules WHERE HE IS STILL OU. I don't wanna' have to say it again :S

2) I live in the UK, hence, 'Offence'. Believe it or not, there are countries outside of yours that actually spell things correctly. Oops, I mean differently. >.>

3) @gingbino11: Thanks for your fantastic reply! It was most helpful. I'll go through it bit by bit. Deoxys really didn't come to my mind for some reason, probably because I wasn't really paying too much attention to my leads, concentrating more on my choice of sweepers. I see now that Deoxys is a direct upgrade to Azelf and will replace him with Deoxys immediately. Thanks!

Second, I am glad you know about Hyper Offence as a lot of people haven't really heard of it or know its dynamics (even though I posted an article on it ). Your response to suggestions about incorporating special sweepers is totally correct. Yes, a or Ferrothorn or Skarm or whatever would be able to wall a single of my sweepers, but as you stated, nobody carries more than 1 of each type of wall. After the wall have been taken down, whether it takes one, two or even three of my sweepers, the opponent will have nothing left to defend them from being rolled over. However, if I used both physical AND special sweepers, I would have to overcome both Ferrothorn and Blissey etc.

Thirdly, thank you very much for your Terrakion suggestion. Metagross, I knew, was always going to have to be replaced and Terrakion fits the bill perfectly, and as you stated, can serve multiple purposes. Truthfully, I don't really like to use more than one legend on a team if I can help it. But the usefulness in this case is just too good to refuse.

Fourthly, I again understand that Haxorus is a direct upgrade to Gyarados. The problem is I just love Gyrados lol. He is so old skool, and I've used him in a lot of my teams since the early generations. It's a matter of head over heart I guess. I'll try Haxorus out and see how it goes.

Fifthly (you made a lot of good points!), Cloyster was, I agree, rather hit and miss. With so many sandstorm teams, entry hazards and people running priority moves, Cloyster either ripped teams apart of failed miserably. The Scrafty idea is genius, an excellent breaker of common walls that will benefit my other sweepers immeasurably. He has a great design too.

Again, thanks for your great response. A lot of changes to be made I agree, but I didn't post the team here to totally boast about it; I knew there was a lot of improvements to be made and I appreciate all the help I get Furthermore, you get 20 whole cookies for getting the Street Sharks reference and being the best poster

@Remorph: No, I didn't know Defog did that :O Why is this not common knowledge?!

Again, thanks guys. I'll do some team testing and post my results soon.

 

[Sakuma]

Pretty decent team i like how you covered all the weather so thats good. Bunch of great types but there are a couple of repeats. If you dont want azelf to be taunt bait you should make high speed and now you have to deal with Prankster taunts so try to squeaze in an attack. not a psychic type so you dont get walled by darks.

 

[archeopsdan]

i really like your team and its offencive style, however as has been suggested try out deoxys-s with the same setup as it will be far better also as garchomp is uber on most PO lobbies and smogon and here of course the dragon i would suggest is hydriegon(would be your first special sweeper on the team).

hydriegon@choice scarf
modest, levitate
252 Sp.atk, 252 Spd, 4 Hp
-dragon pulse/draco meteor
-dark pulse
-flamethrower/fire blast
-surf

basically a set which cannot be blocked by any pokemon also it is very quick and powerful, dragon move of your choice(no pun intended) and dark pulse are stab, fire move and surf then provide perfect coverage.

 

[lucario44444444]

Try Subsitiute over Fire fang on Garchomp, And put maybe a Mixtar over Azelf, Suicide leads don't work anymore

Heres the set
name: Mixed Attacker
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Crunch
move 3: Fire Blast
move 4: Ice Beam / Superpower
item: Leftovers
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 180 SpA / 76 SpD