Retiring OU Team

[d0nut]

Intro:
Well this is a team that I have been using a lot recently. It has had a good run, but for now I’m going to retire it and create something new. My main reason for posting it is just to get some thoughts and opinions about the team. I may also use it in the future so I might make a few changes to test out at some point in time. Without further ado here it is.
The Team:

In Depth:

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 80 HP/252 Atk/176 Spe
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -Sp.Atk)
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Trick
- U-Turn

Jirachi has been my lead of choice (quite literally) for some of my most recent teams. It is a very solid choice as it can handle some of the most common leads and prevent them from getting up Stealth Rocks sometimes, and can even get Rocks of its own placed. It matches favorably against Azelf, the most common lead in OU at this time, as well as other common suicide leads such as Aerodactyl and Roserade. It can also come back later in the game and finish off slower opponents with Iron Head.

Jirachi’s Iron Head flinches things like Azelf 60% of the time and prevents it from getting down SR, and even if it doesn’t flinch Starmie can come clean up the mess. Trick can cripple many leads such as Swampert or Bronzong who get forced into switching as if they use SR there is no point in sticking around, plus if they can only use the same move it helps make them easy to predict around later in the game. U-Turn lets me see what they switch out to so that I can safely bring in a counter to whatever they have.

Gliscor @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spe
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -Sp.Atk)
- Earthquake
- Taunt
- Roost
- U-Turn

Gliscor is the most defensive player on my team. He is simply amazing at destroying stall teams, as well as shutting down common offensive threats with his great typing and using Taunt to prevent stat boosting. Despite this being a defensive pokemon on an offensive team he can still win me battles single handedly against unprepared teams as he is surprisingly fast.

Taunt prevents Gyarados, and other Dragon Dancers from setting up against Gliscor, and then I can U-Turn out to something to counter them. U-Turn is very fun especially when you have two pokemon with it, such as my Jirachi lead. Going back and forth can wear opponents down gradually and be annoying to deal with. Gliscor even comes complete with reliable STAB Earthquake, and recovery from Roost.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk/240 Sp.Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Naive (+Spe, -Sp.Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake

Good ol’ MixMence. It helps break down walls and punch holes in teams. This thing is the best pokemon in OU simply because of how difficult it is to predict. If they expect a DDMence and run into this it could possibly be game over for predicting incorrectly. This set can take out anything in one or two hits, which makes switching difficult, yet at the same time it forces a lot of switches.

Draco Meteor followed by Outrage is enough to destroy even the sturdiest things out there such as Cresselia. Fire Blast takes out Steel types who try to come in on Draco Meteor and can even finish off Scizor and Skarmory after the Sp.Atk drop from DM. Earthquake is to deal with things such as Heatran and Magnezone who are better handled by it as opposed to Fire Blast.

Heatran @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Substitute

SubTran is one of the many sets Heatran can pull off and destroy teams with. Most Heatran are stopped cold by bulky Water types such as Swampert, Suicune, Vaporeon, and things of that sort, however when Heatran sets up a Sub while its counters switch in it can safely hit them with Toxic and stall them by spamming Sub. This effectively allows Heatran to defeat its most common counters and take them completely by surprise.

Fire Blast and Earth Power are found on nearly every Heatran and for good reason; it provides it with a great STAB and amazing coverage. Toxic and Substitute is a deadly combination which allows Heatran to be difficult to counter without losing a pokemon. It is more deadly than Explosion because it allows Heatran to defeat counters without sacrificing itself.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Starmie makes an effective Rapid Spinner and revenge killer in one package. Many things such as Gyarados, Salamence, and Heatran can be dealt with by Starmie should they manage to take out one of my other pokes. Rotoms that try to stop Rapid Spin can end up eating a Hydro Pump instead and being finished off by the second attack, leaving me free to get rid of SR and other hazards without a problem.

While Hydro Pump is inaccurate it helps Starmie destroy Rotoms that want to keep SR up for my opponents, which is something Surf just doesn’t have the power to do. Boltbeam gives good coverage, and allows me to get revenge kills on many common sweepers to prevent them from destroying my team.

Machamp @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -Sp.Atk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Payback
- Stone Edge
- Substitute

Let’s face it… Machamp just might be the most annoying pokemon out there. It’s sure up there with things such as Breloom (Spore) and Jirachi (Iron Head.) Nothing likes to switch into Dynamicpunch not only because of raw power, it also confuses everything it hits other then ghosts. Even ghosts think twice about switching in because it has Payback. If this gets a Substitute up it can safely abuse Dynamicpunch without having to worry about incoming ghosts because if they come in it can safely use Payback while the Sub soaks up the damage. It also prevents the pesky ghosts from using Will o’ Wisp which most of them have.

Dynamicpunch and Payback provide it with nearly perfect coverage. Heracross and Toxicroak are the only things that resist both attacks, while Heracross would be hit by Stone Edge for neutral damage, and while Toxicroak resists everything it doesn’t have the bulk to come in anytime soon. There are few things scarier than a Machamp behind a Sub because of how annoying Dynamicpunch is when it has perfect accuracy thanks to Machamps amazing ability, No Guard.

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This is my team… If you have any interesting ideas post them here and I may test them out sometime whenever use this team again.

 

[d0nut]

24 hour bump

 

[hobby]

The main reason I see for the lack of rates here is simply because this team is pretty solid on it's own, you seem to handle stall quite nicely (though Toxic on Gliscor may help improve the odds here) and you have all the major threats covered. I am not seeing an extremely solid answer to Scizor, but you should be able to play around it by using the impressive resistance set of the team (and Starmie can revenge it fairly well if the need should arise) (299 Atk vs 236 Def & 343 HP (120 Base Power): 211 - 250 (61.52% - 72.89%) should be a decent enough answer if it is locked into BP or has taken some peripheral damage).

 

[calze6]

Just an EV nitpick: 248HP 8 spd machamp allows to outrun 4 Spd bliss.

 

[Mail Time]

I do not see how the team is Scizor weak when it has Heatran and Gliscor. Gliscor beats CB versions comfortably as it is not 2HKOed by any move in its arsenal. SD versions are even simpler. Switching to Gliscor if it SDs, then to Heatran as it BPs so you can kill and its the end of the matter. UTurn spamming isnt problematic either as the team has 4 Bug resists and has the second best spinner in the game. One thing that does hurt this team is offensive DDGyara and you have to sacrifice Mence so Starmie can KO and at that point it will have <20%

EDIT: Seconding Toxic on Gliscor

 

[hobby]

In other words, it beats Scizor by playing around it, not by having a straight up counter, which is exactly what I said, I never said it was weak to it, just that it could cause problems (especially with an inexperienced player, seeing as it requires a decent level of prediction). Also I find it hard to believe that you can say Gliscor is handling Scizor well, the best it can hope to do is stall it out (Scizor lands 36.44% - 43.22% from a CB Bullet Punch while Gliscor only lands 30.03% - 35.86% from EQ, putting it on the back foot from the start), not to say it doesn't work, just that it is shaky at best.

I did miss the Gyara thing, but you know me, I have something of an ability to overlook Gyara. That said, given that it is an offensive DD variant, Jirachi can switch in and Trick the Scarf onto it, locking it into a move and making it much easier to keep in line by switching to the appropriate pokemon for any given move, given the right play around, Gyara can be taken out quite nicely. It is much the same situation as Scizor, wear it down with time. Not perfect, but it is a way that it can be taken care of.

 

[d0nut]

Gliscor usually handles CB Scizor very well. If it is locked into BP the only move that has Gliscor doesn't resist it can Roost off damage and defeat it with EQ eventually. SD Scizor isn't something I see very often and yes it could be a problem but there isnt really anything that it would like to try and set up on. It wouldn't like taking a Dynamicpunch from Champ, FB from Tran, Hydro Pump from Starmie, and even -2 FB from Mence can KO. Gliscor simply has to Taunt it to prevent it from Swords Dancing at all. Gyarados has similar issues switching in as Champ has SE and can take an unboosted attack, Tran can Sub while it comes in and hit it with Toxic, Starmie has Tbolt and Mence has DM and both are faster before it boosts, Gliscor again can Taunt to prevent set up but may have to take a Waterfall if Taunt was predicted. Both pokes could come in on Jirachi if I were to still have Scarf but it hasn't been much of an issue. If it comes down to revenge killing Scizor is outsped by Heatran. DDGyara with LO could be a problem though if it were to set up successfully now that I think about it... Do you think I should switch to a bulky Rapid Spin set to counter Gyara more effectively?

Edit: Toxic on Gliscor would be nice but U-Turn is the only thing that is replaceable. U-Turn is helpful since Gliscor is one of the first things I bring out in battle as it can force switches with its great typing and U-Turn to scout switches and keep me one step ahead. Taunt usually deals with stall well enough as it prevents set up of entry hazards, phazing from WW/Roar and status attacks. Still Toxic may be worth a try if I ever get around to it.

 

[hobby]

The only problem with taking that route is that you lose a lot of power in the process, if you are willing to give up the power, that is fine, but just know that with the bulk you would need to put in, you would lose the ability to even 2HKO the least bulky Rotom out there. If you are alright with that, then it will work.

 

[d0nut]

The only problem with taking that route is that you lose a lot of power in the process, if you are willing to give up the power, that is fine, but just know that with the bulk you would need to put in, you would lose the ability to even 2HKO the least bulky Rotom out there. If you are alright with that, then it will work.

Pretty much the problem with Starmie, you have to chose between power to stop Rotom, or defense to stop Gyara. I can use other things to get around Rotom, like Heatran, so I may change this soon.