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Mixed-Tier OU

poix_the_yak

I stay noided
Just started using Pokemon Showdown again and I'm still awful at team building. But I don't want to stick with the conventional OU 'mon, I really prefer to use ones from the lesser used tiers when I can. Here's my team.

Magneton @ Eviolite
Trait: Analytic Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest
* Thunderbolt
* Hidden Power Fire
* Flash Cannon
* Thunder Wave
I like Magneton better than Magnezone. Magneton has better speed and looks way cooler. I gave him TBolt and HP fire for coverage and Thunder Wave for annoyance, and Flash Cannon is really just for filler. I personally don't want to use Volt Switch, but if you have any suggestions besides Flash Cannon please tell me.

Latios @ Expert Belt
Levitate
252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid
* Draco Meteor
* Psyshock
* Surf
* Hidden Power Electric Roost
I've used Hydreigon in the past but he's always been outsped by Latios, so I thought to myself "I'm gonna use a Latios." And he works. This set is purely for coverage. I'm using HP electric instead of Fire to get past bulky waters. And the Expert Belt is nice with its extra little boost.

Staraptor
Infernape @ Life orb
Iron Fist
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly
* Fire Punch
* Close Combat
* Stone Edge
* Swords Dance

Fast and powerful. Good coverage, awesome attack after a dance. Sorta-sweeper.

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Torrent
248 HP / 44 Def / 216 SDef
Calm
* Stealth Rock
* Scald
* Toxic
* Protect Ice Beam
Love this guy in OU, he sets up rocks and toxics people. He's survived multiple Thunderbolts from Jolteon with his Special Defence and works well with protect. Only problem is that he's walled by anthing that resists water or ice. Ice Beam is useful for blocking setups.

Chandelure
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Magic Guard
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
* Calm Mind
* Recover
* Psyshock
* Focus Blast

This guy is awesome bulky enough to set up a few calm minds and then recover when needed. And I don't get hurt by any statuses!

Cloyster
Donphan @ Leftovers
Sturdy
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish
* Rapid Spin
* Earthquake
* Roar
* Knock Off

Awesome spinner, great defense. Knock off bugs leftovers users and a few others. Roar bugs everybody that isn't a strong special attacker, for which I can switch into Magneton or Empoleon.

Sooo that's my team. I haven't been doing too well with it, winning about 40% of battles. Please help.
 
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Out of curiosity why are you running Analytic on Magneton? And if so, why not run Quiet on it to guarantee that he will benefit from it. Still, Magnet Pull is what I would recommend. Like Magnezone, it gives Magneton a niche. If looking for other options other than Flash Cannon (Which I only say stray from because of type coverage) try Tri-Attack or Signal Beam if you have access to either.

If you're looking to swap out Staraptor it looks like some Waters (Swampert comes to mind, however prevalent he is these days) can hurt your team a bit too much. May want to consider something like Celebi if you want more of a walling role, although he can serve offensively as well.

Also interesting decision to forego Shell Smash on the Cloyster. I'm interested in seeing how well it does, to be honest.
 

Caluminousdugtrio

class on my back
I would suggest Magnet Pull on Magneton > Analytic. Magnet Pull helps you trap those Ferro's and Skarm's, allowing a Shell Smash variant of Cloyster, which can actually benefiit your team a lot. Your team also lacks a revenge killer, so I suggest Choice Scarf > Expert Belt. Thats all for now. Maybe add a importable so I could try the team out? (too lazy to type everything in)
 

Atrocious

Well-Known Member
I'd just opt for Roost over HP Electric on Latios as bulky waters tend to be more specially bulky and Psyshock will deal more damage than a SE HP Electric most of the time. You probably want HP Fire however to breakthrough Ferrothorn who walls the whole set besides HP Electric which deals pitiful damage to it.

Magneton and Magnezone's main attraction is Magnet Pull. Analytic just won't work quite well with Magneton's awful typing in OU, steel is a mixed blessing, and can't afford to take EQs and various fighting moves that plague the metagame. If you really want an Analytic user, I'd recommend Porygon2 as it's probably the best Analytic user in the game which doesn't mean much, otherwise use the magnets for what they do best. Also one quick note, using Thunder Wave + Analytic defeats the purpose completely.

I guess you're trying to make Empoleon be your special wall? It has the typing to somewhat pull it off but when you look at the common special threats in OU, you realize it really isn't a role it's suited for. Common special threats in OU consist of the likes of Keldeo, Gengar, Thundurus-T, Lati@s etc. which it cannot take or do much to besides Toxic which hundreds of other things can do. Like I said Steel is well pretty bad defensively with threats like Landorus forms, Terrakion, Conkeldurr, etc ready to bash steel types in, but the one saving grace for steel types is the ability to wall Dragon types. If you opt to use Empoleon for this matter, the moveset can't really do much to accomplish that, as most DD Dragons use a Lum Berry anyways which they can just get to +2/+2 for example like on Salamence then just EQ you to dust and boom goes your team. To somewhat help this, I'd suggest the simple solution of putting Ice Beam > Protect to allow you to switch into dragons locked into Outrage and OHKO them.

Not much to say about Chandelure but I think a Scarf set would be better as your team lacks speed and would benefit from a revenge killer although it cannot take out other scarfers. Chandelure's speed is painfully just under common threats, if it had a base speed of 100+, it'd probably be OU but oh well. If you do, Energy Ball > Sub.

Finally, Cloyster. Sure it has a gigantic base Def stat in what, 180, but is weak to the ever present fighting type in OU and without She'll Smash, it has no way of outspeeding the likes of Terrakion or even hitting hard enough to scratch it's rough skin with the moves presented so I'd opt for either Starmie, which won't be taking too many CC's to the face anyways but has Recover at least to heal off the damage while being able to spin more efficiently with it's 115 base speed and poses more of an offensive threat with it's great coverage unlike non-SS Cloyster. The other option I'd suggest is Donphan. Donphan too has a great Def stat although not as great as Cloysters, it has better typing to do so. It can take those fighting hits and spin while being able to KO Terrakion back with STAB Earthquake and has the same priority in Ice Shard.

Staraptor is Staraptor, meant to be a battering ram and kill as much as possible before it dies so quickly lol.

Anyways I tried to avoid making big changes.
 

poix_the_yak

I stay noided
Thanks for the criticism everyone, it's helping a bunch.

I've made some changes. Now my only problem is that I feel that I need more physical attackers. I really want to use Celebi but I don't know if I can work with a team with 1 physical attacker.
 

loco1234

BEEDOOBEEDOOBEEDOO
Hm... You want a physical attacker and a Celebi? Why not try Physical Celebi? It's so rarely used, but it isn't terrible. I've had it used against me, it did fine. The main reason it worked then though was that I didn't see the physical set coming. And my opponents were really good at predicting. But still, that doesn't change the fact that it DID work. I haven't actually used it myself, but this is how I'd do it if I ever did:

Celebi @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Seed Bomb
- Zen Headbutt
- Sucker Punch

It struggles a lot for coverage on the physical side but it's by no means bad. You've got a boosting move, dual STABs and Priority, at least. It's gimmicky, but as I mentioned it got me pretty good. Do note it has no real way of getting through Skarmory, and... What's a +2 Seed Bomb do to Gliscor? My damage calculator seems to be down.

Feel free to ignore this advice though, as I said I haven't used it myself so I can't tell you firsthand how well (or not) it works.
 

Caluminousdugtrio

class on my back
Physical Celebi...kinda meh. It lacks for coverage, as Loco said, but with only a base 100 Atk, it really lacks firepower. I would sugggest Breloom if you want a Grass type physical attacker. Thats all for now, because I'm in school ;)
 

poix_the_yak

I stay noided
Wow, I really like this idea, especially since I always forget Celebi has base 100 in both offenses. I think I might give this a try tomorrow and see how I like it.
 

silverangel

Metal Fairy
If you do run Physical Celebi, I would run U-Turn over Swords Dance just because Celebi doesn't have the coverage to really hurt anything.

Celebi's notable physical moves are:
Seed Bomb
Zen Headbutt
Return
Sucker Punch
U-Turn

Yeah, that more than sucks. You're walled by Steel types. Of course, you could run Hidden Power Fire over Zen Headbutt because 1- Psychic STAB isn't that good, and 2- you can kill Breloom and Scizor. If you do, put 4 EVs in sp. Atk and run a Naive Nature. However, you can keep swords dance if you use Hidden Power Fire over Zen Headbutt.
 

Atrocious

Well-Known Member
Was that person me? Lol, I've used that exact Celebi set for sometime on my Offensive team lol. You don't really have a problem with steels however because the rest of your team handles steels very well.
 

poix_the_yak

I stay noided
I tried two games with physical Celebi and I don't like it at all...

I'm thinking of running Infernape instead of Celebi and maybe something else over Chandelure. Does that seem like a good idea?

For Infernape, I'm thinking Iron fist and Drain/Mach/Ice/Thunder punches, possibly with a life orb.
 
If you want more physical attackers, Choice Banded Victini is a really nice pokemon that I like to use sometimes. A surprising number of teams are woefully unprepared for STAB, Choice-Banded V-Create, and it more than makes up for Victini's base 100 attack, which is a bit low for a Choice Bander. But the fun doesn't stop there! Bolt Strike punishes any water types looking to switch into V-Create, and the Victory Star ability boosts its accuracy, making it a tad more reliable. Quick Attack can be used for revenge killing purposes, but you may want to go for something else. Brick-Break gives Heatran something to worry about, and Hidden Power Grass, while not boosted by the CHoice Band, can hit pokemon like Swampert, Gastrodon and Rotom-W hard. Other than the lack of natural cure, Victini really works as a better physical attacker than Celebi, and V-Create more than makes up for having lower offences than Infernape.

If you do go with Infernape, however, note that Jellicent is immune to two attacks and resists a third, while hitting back with Will-o-Wisp or Scald. While Thunderpunch does take care of that to an extent, Sub-Disable Gengar is immune to your STAB attacks, and it can take out another attack with Disable. Come to think of it, Gengar gives this team a lot of trouble. Nothing here likes swapping in, and between Shadow Ball and Focus Blast it hits 4 of your current team (Empoleon, Chandelure, Latios, Magneton) for super effective damage, while the Sub-Disable varient can also take out Staraptor's Brave Bird. Levitate means it can come in on Donphan's Earthquake, and the only real answer you have then is roar. To that end, Scizor might end up being a good physical attacker, as his Bullet Punch does a large amount of damage (at least 93%, but up to 110%).

If you want to run something over Chandelure, Reuniclus packs a punch and can really break down stall-teams, as well as being a large threat to sandstorm, hail and stall teams thanks to magic guard.
 
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poix_the_yak

I stay noided
Thanks a lot for that. I actually changed my team to how you had said to change it before you even posted XD

Infernape and Reuniclus it is. Editing the first post now.
 
just so you know, gyarados with a free DD(Especially in Rain) can sweep you, especially SubDD as you send in Empoleon thinking Waterfall+ Bounce/ Ice Fang get's walled but it can just set up all over your face. Donphan with Sturdy intact is one of the only ways to counter a +1 Gyara, so my suggestion is to have roar on empoleon, though it does hurt to remove ice beam or toxic. What you can do though is to move stealth rocks to donphan and remove roar or knock off, though Gyara with Waterfall/Ice Fang/EQ still kills them. Gameplans i would recommend if you see a Gyara

1. Priority is to keep Sturdy intact on donphan/ have empoleon at good amount of health
Explained above
2.Reuniclus at high health
Not as reliable, seeing a +1 STAB Rain Boosted (possibly) waterfall may still hurt. Just ensure that reuni is still able to take a hit as a back-up, as this is a more offensive way to counter it.
 
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