Rate my Smogon OU Team

[EKZ1505]

Bisharp (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

I actually typically lead with Bisharp. I know it's not a common lead, but he's done great for me, even as a decoy. If I don't fear the opponent's Pokemon, or know that they can't set up any of their own hazards, I set up my own stealth rocks, which he's usually guaranteed to do with the Focus Sash. He also can put a lot of offensive pressure on my opponent, and I've even been able to sweep a couple of legitimate teams 6-0 just with leading him. Defiant is always useful against Defoggers, which I sometimes see more of due to my Espeon. If I do anticipate hazards being set up on me though...

Espeon (F) @ Light Clay
Ability: Magic Bounce
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Baton Pass
- Light Screen

Espeon can come in and reflect those hazards right back, and typically then force a switch while I set up a screen or two for my two sweepers. Not much of an offensive presence, but the screens are typically very useful, and death fodder late in a game is actually not a bad thing to have to give me a clean switch in to something else.

Gallade @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Zen Headbutt
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance

My first set-up sweeper, who has actually done a lot of damage even without setting up. STABs and Swords Dance are self-explanatory. He typically gets a clean opportunity to use at least one SD, and the screens pretty much guarantee this. I know a lot of people prefer Knock Off or even Ice Punch for coverage, but I've found Shadow Sneak to be EXTREMELY useful and gotten a lot of key KOs when priority was needed. His hidden ability before mega evolving is very useful, as I've gotten boosts predicting my opponent using a dark move on Gengar or Espeon, or just using Knock Off on anyone.

Dragonite (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Fire Punch
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance

My other set-up sweeper. With Multiscale and one or both screens up, Dragonite is very scary, and easily gets a DD in. With the Multiscale active and screens up, my opponent often goes for a super-effective move, which activates his WP, and really puts my opponent in trouble. Not the best STABs, with Dragon Claw only hitting one type super-effectively, and no flying STAB at all, but with his great stats (and hopefully some solid boosts as well), he can hit REALLY hard.

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Moonlight

Originally intended to be my cleric, I eventually settled on this set. A lot of people have not predicted that she would have Unaware as her ability, and I always take advantage of this as they try to set-up.

Gengar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Sludge Wave (Sludge Bomb in-game)
- Destiny Bond

My Gengar has reallyyyyyy ticked off a lot of people who didn't expect it to be scarfed lol He's been great as a revenge killer and also often comes in at the end of games and finishes off weakened Pokemon after weakened Pokemon. I've considered going Focus Blast over Destiny Bond, but I would prefer not to be locked into Focus Blast due to the poor accuracy.


Any advice or help with my team or their movesets is really appreciated. The only Pokemon that I probably won't consider replacing is Gallade. I've used Sylveon as a cleric (HV, Heal Bell, Wish, Protect) before, but I liked Unaware Clefable on this team since it ignores the opponent's stat boosts while I set up my own (again, hopefully behind screens). I know I don't have anything to pass any statuses (burns, poison, etc) out, but my style with this team is very offensive (which I like a lot), and I've had a lot of success with it. One Pokemon off the top of my head that has caused my trouble, however, is Heatran. Unless Gallade is around, he completely walls much of my team. I know some people find dual screens to be cheap, but since I'm essentially down a Pokemon, and there are tons of Defoggers out there, I don't see this as much of a real problem.
I would be curious to read any thoughts on making this team work even without the screens though! Going with that thought, I would probably need a different hazards setter, and probably my own Rapid Spinner/Defogger.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice and I hope you enjoyed checking out my team

 

[PikaBones]

I was busy looking at your team and was going to say you have a problem with Heatran, but I guess you beat me to it
Really cool concept of using screens with espeon to make it easier for your Pokemon to set up, though it would worry me that espeon would get worn down really fast and might only be able to get screens up once in a match. So if your opponent can survive those 8 turns without having huge holes ripped through their team that might be an issue. I know Espeon can deter hazards, but many of the hazard setters in OU can hit pretty hard, but I guess espeon can deal with it with the help with screens.

There's a couple of things you could do to deal with heatran and deal with hazards. You could just give dragonite earthquake and you could replace gengar with starmie or maybe mega blastiose. Starmie is quick and puts pressure on an opposing team while giving you the option to spin, and blastiose does the same thing, but is a bit bulkier and isn't weak to knock off and has great coverage moves. Dragonite might not be able to deal with ferrothorn or skarmory without fire punch, but your other team members can. If you are using dragonite, M-blastiose or starmie with spinning and strong special attacks can help it sweep. Though you might not want to give up your scarfer, I was thinking that you do have a good amount of strong priority and that could cover the lack of a scarfer.

Also be careful with T-tar, it gives trouble to a good amount of your team and ruins dragonite's multiscale and Clefables recovery with sand stream.

Well that's what I have to say. I hope this helps you in anyway. It was fun looking at your team, I should try something similar soon.

 

[Lickilicky.my.Skitty]

Looks good! I would switch out Destiney Bond for Focus Blast, honestly. Seems like FB would be used more and help you against Dark types - but you do have a lot of coverage for Dark types.

Also.... why not Heal Bell on Espeon instead of Baton Pass? Seems like it'd make a little more use out of him in case and of your big players get crippled.

 

[EKZ1505]

I was busy looking at your team and was going to say you have a problem with Heatran, but I guess you beat me to it
Really cool concept of using screens with espeon to make it easier for your Pokemon to set up, though it would worry me that espeon would get worn down really fast and might only be able to get screens up once in a match. So if your opponent can survive those 8 turns without having huge holes ripped through their team that might be an issue. I know Espeon can deter hazards, but many of the hazard setters in OU can hit pretty hard, but I guess espeon can deal with it with the help with screens.

There's a couple of things you could do to deal with heatran and deal with hazards. You could just give dragonite earthquake and you could replace gengar with starmie or maybe mega blastiose. Starmie is quick and puts pressure on an opposing team while giving you the option to spin, and blastiose does the same thing, but is a bit bulkier and isn't weak to knock off and has great coverage moves. Dragonite might not be able to deal with ferrothorn or skarmory without fire punch, but your other team members can. If you are using dragonite, M-blastiose or starmie with spinning and strong special attacks can help it sweep. Though you might not want to give up your scarfer, I was thinking that you do have a good amount of strong priority and that could cover the lack of a scarfer.

Also be careful with T-tar, it gives trouble to a good amount of your team and ruins dragonite's multiscale and Clefables recovery with sand stream.

Well that's what I have to say. I hope this helps you in anyway. It was fun looking at your team, I should try something similar soon.

Normally, Espeon is able to survive setting up the first round of screens (assuming the first screen set up is Reflect for an incoming physical attack, or vice-versa). It has decent bulk with max HP investment, especially on the special side. At worst, it's able to come in later for death fodder to give me a free switch-in to something else, but it often gets at least one more of the screens set-up if needed.
I've had EQ on Dragonite on a different team in the past, and I feel like Fire Punch was more useful (mostly against Steel Types that either take normal damage from EQ or are immune), but on this team I think you're right. I'll definitely try it out for a while I'm gonna look at Starmie too. Not sure if I wanna give it a choice item with Rapid Spin, but that would help my team a lot still. Thanks for all your input!

Looks good! I would switch out Destiney Bond for Focus Blast, honestly. Seems like FB would be used more and help you against Dark types - but you do have a lot of coverage for Dark types.

Also.... why not Heal Bell on Espeon instead of Baton Pass? Seems like it'd make a little more use out of him in case and of your big players get crippled.

I'm still not sure what I wanna do with Destiny Bond honestly lol I can't think of a time that I've actually used it, but it's still nice to have to surprise and ruin someone's potential sweep. Focus Blast (despite the poor accuracy) would reallyyyyy help with Heatran though. And I haven't even considered Heal Bell on Espeon, but I really like it! I have Baton Pass there mostly to avoid Pursuit users, and it's been useful a few times, but Heal Bell might still come in handy more thanks for all your advice!