A Bulky Sweeper Team [OU]

[Croconaw Guy]

The whole idea of this team is to pose an offensive threat like others do, but the sweepers are bulky rather than fast. Gengar can clean up things like Deoxys-S that might try to get in my way. It also works on the suspect ladder since it lacks Garchomp and Deoxys-S, which these days a team not having either of those two is pretty rare (and for a good reason).

The main strategy is to beat the opponent down with specsmence and cripple them with paralysis so Infernape or SpecsMence can sweep. If Suicune hasn't taken much damage from its defensive duties, it ususally makes a good late-game cleaner. I also have a revenge killer in case my opponent sets things up. Sometimes I'm in those battles where nothing is actually paralyzing, and in that case I scout my opponent's team with Roar and Whirlwind and figure out who has the best chance to sweep, and then I try to weaken and kill what gets in its way (especially revenge killers). So basically I take hits from the opponent and I hit back, only with a more defensively capable unit. The lack of anything to take electric attacks is somewhat disappointing, but otherwise I resist a lot of attacks. It kind of varies from game to game, but my pokemon cover each other pretty well, which is always helpful.

This team hasn't lost yet, but then again I don't ladder much. I see a couple weaknesses (Toxic Spikes is especially annoying) that I'd really like fixed, like the Mixape weakness of sorts. As mentioned above, electrics are a tad troublesome. That's where you guys come in. Here's the team:

Salamence @ Choice Specs
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 Satk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Hydro Pump

Choice Specs Salamence was really popular in early DP and people would just spam Draco Meteor. However, SpecsMence isn't as common now and it isn't as predictable as it used to be, so it can take out an unsuspecting physical wall. Salamence also covers SDluke for me. The great thing about SpecsMence is that with the metagame in offensive overdrive and Blissey usage plummeting, a lot of teams have to sacrifice a pokemon to take one of Salamence's powerful attacks. Stealth Rocks are always a pain, but usually Salamence sticks around anyways.

Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

Typical revenge killer. Timid is for Deoxys-S slaying, while Thunderbolt and HP Ice revenge Gyarados and dragons, respectively. Gengar is pretty reliable as a revenge killer so I really like its spot on the team.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Spd / 220 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Rest
- Roar
- Sleep Talk

Calm Zapdos is really neat. It's one of the only Togekiss counters in the game and it takes special attackers and status like a real man. In case you didn't notice, my team isn't the fastest of them all, so discharge is the to slow things down. Roar is fun to abuse with Rest and Sleep Talk, though it's a shame I lack Spikes/SR support. It's mostly there for CMers like Hariyama will just never dare PHaze. It also does great scouting so I know what sweeper has the best chance to sweep.

Hariyama @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 156 HP / 100 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Force Palm
- Ice Punch
- Thunderpunch
- Whirlwind

Hariyama is a really cool pokemon. Force Palm's para support is great along with discharge. Thunderpunch is for Gyarados and Whirlwind to stop those annoying Soundproof pokemon from walling my PHaze attempt. The EVs are a little more defensive than those in the analysis, which is mostly because Hariyama has no way to heal and I want it to be able to take as many attacks as it can. Obviously it's my Tyranitar counter as well. Like Suicune, this covers Salamence very well and also covers Zapdos's weaknesses.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam
- Substitute
- Surf

I've used this set for months now and it never lets me down. Sometimes the lack of speed is really annoying, but Suicune is not going to be walled by Blissey or Snorlax (though I never really thought they walled the standard CalmCune either but they're common switch-ins nonetheless). Para support is helpful in that regard, and obviously I get 101 subs too. The coverage kind of sucks but opposing waters can't do anything to it, and CM has 26 extra PP if I need to stall. It also is the main dragon counter and cleans up late game if necessary. I can't really justify the exact EVs but they sure do work. Suicune also covers Salamence very well.

Infernape @ Expert Belt
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Thunderpunch

Swords Dance Infernape is a fast and powerful pokemon in the late game. It's pretty tough to stop by then so it's quite effective at cleaning things up. Expert Belt is used over Life Orb to help stop recoil from piling up. Infernape was kind of a filler though, so I'm open to replacements on this slot especially.


Yeah, that's the team. Just so you know, I don't really care if I don't have a counter for something as long as I can reliably revenge kill it. I prefer countering things as long as it isn't at the cost of the offensive power of this team, so please keep that in mind when making suggestions. I'm pretty open with the team though, so yeah, fire away. As long as there are solid reasoning behind your suggestions I'll definitely take them into consideration. Thanks!

 

[ShupFO]

The whole idea of this team is to pose an offensive threat like others do, but the sweepers are bulky rather than fast. Gengar can clean up things like Deoxys-S that might try to get in my way. It also works on the suspect ladder since it lacks Garchomp and Deoxys-S, which these days a team not having either of those two is pretty rare (and for a good reason).

The main strategy is to beat the opponent down with specsmence and cripple them with paralysis so Infernape or SpecsMence can sweep. If Suicune hasn't taken much damage from its defensive duties, it ususally makes a good late-game cleaner. I also have a revenge killer in case my opponent sets things up. Sometimes I'm in those battles where nothing is actually paralyzing, and in that case I scout my opponent's team with Roar and Whirlwind and figure out who has the best chance to sweep, and then I try to weaken and kill what gets in its way (especially revenge killers). So basically I take hits from the opponent and I hit back, only with a more defensively capable unit. The lack of anything to take electric attacks is somewhat disappointing, but otherwise I resist a lot of attacks. It kind of varies from game to game, but my pokemon cover each other pretty well, which is always helpful.

This team hasn't lost yet, but then again I don't ladder much. I see a couple weaknesses (Toxic Spikes is especially annoying) that I'd really like fixed, like the Mixape weakness of sorts. As mentioned above, electrics are a tad troublesome. That's where you guys come in. Here's the team:

Salamence @ Choice Specs
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 Satk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Hydro Pump

Choice Specs Salamence was really popular in early DP and people would just spam Draco Meteor. However, SpecsMence isn't as common now and it isn't as predictable as it used to be, so it can take out an unsuspecting physical wall. Salamence also covers SDluke for me. The great thing about SpecsMence is that with the metagame in offensive overdrive and Blissey usage plummeting, a lot of teams have to sacrifice a pokemon to take one of Salamence's powerful attacks. Stealth Rocks are always a pain, but usually Salamence sticks around anyways.

Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

Typical revenge killer. Timid is for Deoxys-S slaying, while Thunderbolt and HP Ice revenge Gyarados and dragons, respectively. Gengar is pretty reliable as a revenge killer so I really like its spot on the team.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Spd / 220 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Rest
- Roar
- Sleep Talk

Calm Zapdos is really neat. It's one of the only Togekiss counters in the game and it takes special attackers and status like a real man. In case you didn't notice, my team isn't the fastest of them all, so discharge is the to slow things down. Roar is fun to abuse with Rest and Sleep Talk, though it's a shame I lack Spikes/SR support. It's mostly there for CMers like Hariyama will just never dare PHaze. It also does great scouting so I know what sweeper has the best chance to sweep.

Hariyama @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 156 HP / 100 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Force Palm
- Ice Punch
- Thunderpunch
- Whirlwind

Hariyama is a really cool pokemon. Force Palm's para support is great along with discharge. Thunderpunch is for Gyarados and Whirlwind to stop those annoying Soundproof pokemon from walling my PHaze attempt. The EVs are a little more defensive than those in the analysis, which is mostly because Hariyama has no way to heal and I want it to be able to take as many attacks as it can. Obviously it's my Tyranitar counter as well. Like Suicune, this covers Salamence very well and also covers Zapdos's weaknesses.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam
- Substitute
- Surf

I've used this set for months now and it never lets me down. Sometimes the lack of speed is really annoying, but Suicune is not going to be walled by Blissey or Snorlax (though I never really thought they walled the standard CalmCune either but they're common switch-ins nonetheless). Para support is helpful in that regard, and obviously I get 101 subs too. The coverage kind of sucks but opposing waters can't do anything to it, and CM has 26 extra PP if I need to stall. It also is the main dragon counter and cleans up late game if necessary. I can't really justify the exact EVs but they sure do work. Suicune also covers Salamence very well.

Infernape @ Expert Belt
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Thunderpunch

Swords Dance Infernape is a fast and powerful pokemon in the late game. It's pretty tough to stop by then so it's quite effective at cleaning things up. Expert Belt is used over Life Orb to help stop recoil from piling up. Infernape was kind of a filler though, so I'm open to replacements on this slot especially.


Yeah, that's the team. Just so you know, I don't really care if I don't have a counter for something as long as I can reliably revenge kill it. I prefer countering things as long as it isn't at the cost of the offensive power of this team, so please keep that in mind when making suggestions. I'm pretty open with the team though, so yeah, fire away. As long as there are solid reasoning behind your suggestions I'll definitely take them into consideration. Thanks!

If your countering togekiss shouldn't you have a better nature i mean in literal Zapdos may have good attack but Togekiss dones't have horrible defense either my opinion(meaning no one else critisize) is to have a better nature like Adamant which will help you in slaying togekiss

You might want to have nasty plot with your salamance since using Draco meteor can really be a pain since it lowers your SpA by 2 so Hp Walls like Blissey can take draco meteor on with it's first try but it's like overheat you should have something to bring your SpA back up but you probably won't need it since Draco meteor does a ton of damage even enough to threat a Blissey with 256 Hp in Evs but you should be fine

And BTW your Team is Great! Bravo to yuor efforts!

 

[Valantaro]

Are...Are you serious? Adamant Zapdos? It's a Special Attacker for gods sakes.

Salamence does not get Nasty Plot first of all, and even with 3 NP, Mence ain't beating Blissey one on one. Secondly, 256 HP EV's is retarded. 252 is the max for any EV set.

"Bravo at yuor efforts!" ? This is an excellent team, and you gave him horrible advice.


Anyway Crocowhore Guy, I'm liking this team. Hariyama seems to fit very well in it, since it eliminates a Heatran and TTar weakness. Agiligross with an SD Pass and Life Orb can be very troublesome, so keep Zapdos alive for it when it comes out in late game.

 

[Croconaw Guy]

Well i don't really think anything can pass a swords dance with two PHazers and a lot of them have trouble getting in on a lot of the team. Anything else? I don't know, I really feel like I could do better than Infernape for my late game sweeper, I just don't know what to put in. Thanks for posting.

 

[RobertM]

My only problem with this team is its got two phazers and no entry hazards.

 

[soul_changer]

uhm...i'm new, but your not really going to be able to outrun Deoxys s, and they carry Kasib berry nowadays.

 

[pr4mence]

Please read the team before posting lol. His Gengar is SCARFED AND TIMID. That means 525 Spd...which, unless I'm in opposite world, is higher than 504, the maximum that Deoxys-S can go. On the subject of your team, not much else is wrong with it, its very nice. Just one tiny option, though of course, I'm not saying you need use it, just another option, is Roost over Rest on your Zapdos. While it means he can't absorb status as well, it is very useful, and the possibility of healing while asleep can be useful. Also, if your having speed problems with your Cune, do you necessarily need those SpAtk EVs? You might move those to Spd, as it can CM to raise its SpAtk, and the set is suppose to get those in anyway, with subs. Other than that, excellent team.