Overview:
Introduction:
This team is my latest creation. It utilizes the destructive power of the items Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, and Choice Band to deal an overwhelming amount of damage to the opponent’s team members. This deadly combination of items is, in my opinion, incredibly effective as not only does it cause problems for pokémon trying to set up, but it also inflicts large amounts of damage to my opponent’s pokémon.
The way I play the team is simple, yet incredibly effective. I use my Life Orb Starmie lead to inflict as much early game damage to the opposing team as possible. I then try to get Stealth Rock up as soon as I can as it aids my overall strategy immensely. Afterwards, I unleash my “hard-hitters” (for lack of a better phrase) duo. This duo consists of a Choice Specs Salamence and a Choice Band Scizor. These two pokémon, with a little help from my Choice Scarf Heracross, are charged with inflicting as much damage to the opposing team as possible. However, Scizor is usually kept in reserve until I know if my opponent has a Blissey on their team. Subsequently, when my opponents pokémon are sufficiently weakened I bring my Starmie and Heracross to finish off the weakened foe’s. Obviously there are some holes in this strategy that will need to be played around. One of these holes is that this team, for it to be successful in completing its goal, needs to constantly be on the offensive. Therefore, I placed two defensive pokémon on my team, Jirachi and Swampert, These two pokémon provide a combination of paralysis, pahzing and wish support to get me back on the offensive ASAP. Now, for those of you that are thinking, “this is a pretty stupid strategy” and “it’ll never work” I don’t believe so. This team has been incredibly successful on the OU ladder and, although it was never intended to, it has amazing synergy.
So, after a couple of months of play testing and tweaking, I present to you my latest and most successful team.
In Depth:
Starmie@ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
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Starmie makes for an excellent opener. Originally, I had Choice Scarf Infernape but I found that it wasn’t doing anything for the team and gave me to many choice users. Thus, Seven Deadly Sins was kind enough to recommend using a Life Orb Starmie as a lead. LO Starmie not only makes for a fantastic lead, but its typing works well with the rest of the team and it fits in with my other squad members very nicely.
LO Starmie poses a massive threat to opposing leads. He can even 2HKO opposing Swampert leads with Hydro Pump. Starmie’s excellent speed also aids it in obliterating my foe’s leads. I usually start off with the predictable move to see what my opponent does to handle the situation. Will he let Swampert take a chunk of his health to get SR up, or will he switch straight away? So, not only does Starmie fit well with my team and make for a brilliant lead, but he also tells me about my opponent.
Starmie also acts as my co-late game clean up pokémon. She is excellent at aiding Zapdos in cleaning up after my Salamence, Scizor and Zapdos have taken huge chunks out of my opponent’s team. Starmie’s amazing speed also allows him to aid the squad by taking out those powerful dragon types (such as Salamence and Latias) that threaten to destroy my team.
Heracross (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252Atk / 252Spe / 6HP
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Night Slash
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Choice Scarf Heracross is my revenge killer and insurance against Blissey in case Scizor should die. Originally, I had a Choice Scarf Zapdos in this slot, and it worked very well (and I still use it when I’m just playing for fun) however, because we had so many special sweepers (Scizor and Swampert being the only pokes who knew physical moves) this team was wreaked eight ways from Sunday by Blissey’s with Flamethrower. Thus, we decided that we needed to replace someone with a physical pokémon who could fill a similar role. Thus, SDS suggested to replace SpecsMence with a physically based support Dragonite with Superpower (for Blissey) and, while it had its advantages in battle, the lose of Salamence was just too great. Therefore I looked at the other members of my team and though about which one would be the best to replace. Eventually, I decided that, to my dismay, that Zapdos was the pokémon to replace. Seven Deadly Sins and I then started to discuss different pokémon that could rill Zapdos’ role on the team by using physical moves. We came up with a few different pokémon that could do that job but none that we though would be able to do it well enough. Then, as I was browsing through Serebii’s list of the top 100 base attack and top 100 base speed pokémon I came across Heracross. SDS and I immediately decided to test.
Aside from being my revenge killer, Heracross is also my co-late game clean up pokémon and an aid to Salamence and Scizor when weakening opposing teams. He is also one of my only two answers to Blissey, which makes him increadibly important.
The moveset is pretty simple, Close Combat is the primary move, Megahorn is additional STAB, Stone Edge is for Gyarados whom would rape this team without it. Night Slash is here primarily for Gengar and Rotom-A who think they can switch in on a CC it also provides nice coverage with the rest of the set and a good filler move.
Max Speed allows me to outspeed scarfed Rotom-A's that don't run max speed.
Salamence(M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Hydro Pump
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Choice Specs Salamence is the first half of my “hard-hitters” duo. I bring Salamence in before I bring in Scizor as all but the very smart, and very dumb, players assume it is a DDing or mixed Salamence. This almost guarantees me a kill with Draco Meteor. Then, once they realise that I am running Specs Mence, I get to see three things. The first is weather or not they have a Blissey (see threat list). The second thing I get to see is how my opponent acts under pressure as I have just killed their primary dragon and/or physical wall. I also get some idea as to the other members of my foe’s team by what he switches in next to face this monster.
With Choice Specs, Salamence reaches an astonishing 479 Special Attack. Put that alone-side Salamence's impressive speed stat and Draco Meteor’s 210 base power and you have one hell of an onslaught. Dragon Pulse is here in case I need to use a repeated STAB attack. Flamethrower and Hydro Pump are for coverage.
Jirachi@ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
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Although intended for Ubers, this Jirachi has served me very well. She is basically a stand-alone special wall and my favourite pokémon to use in place of Blissey. Now, you’re probably wondering why I use this Jirachi in place of the common Blissey. I favour Jirachi over Blissey because people seem to always have an answer to Blissey on their team or a strategy to deal with them. Also, this Jirachi set is pretty much non-existent in the OU environment making it the perfect counter to special threats. You may also be surprised to know that this thing can out-stall non-speced Latias and Scarf Magnezone. All their attacks being 3HKOs. I can then use a combination of Wish, Protect, and Thunderwave to cripple them, heal myself, then U-turn out to the appropriate pokémon to finish them off or to go back on the offensive. It also shows some originality.
Wish is essential on this set as it allows me to recover off the damage that my Salamence and Zapdos have suffered from Stealth Rock, to heal my only phaser, Swampert and to heal the all important Scizor. Not to mention Jirachi himself. Protect is great for scouting and for getting the recovery from wish without taking damage. Thunderwave is used over Toxic as my team loves the speed cut from paralysis. U-turn is for escaping Magnezone after I’ve crippled it, for scouting, and for inflicting some damage on my opponent’s pokémon when I wish to switch.
The given HP and Special Defence EVs reduces the damage of a HP fire from a Scarf Magnezone and a surf from non-speced Latias to a 3HKO. The remaining EVs were placed in defence for overall durability.
Jirachi aids the team by spreading paralysis support throughout the opposing team, and by providing a much needed special sponge.
Scizor(M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Night Slash
- U-turn
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Choice Band Scizor is the second and last, part of my “hard-hitters” duo. This combination of two very hard hitting pokémon coming at the opponent from both sides of the spectrum can be an overwhelming force. However, while Scizor is a part of the duo charged with weakening the opponent’s team, he is one this one for another reason – to kill enemy Blissey. As you may or may not have noticed, this team is comprised mostly of special attacking pokémon who deal little damage to Blissey.
Night Slash is used over Pursuit as I found very little use of that move when I used it on this set, and Night Slash does provide some decent coverage. Hitting opposing Rotoms and other ghosts for super-effective damage and it has decent base power and a high critical-hit ratio making it the prefect substitution for a continued onslaught whereas Superpower would only be able to go for two turns maximum before I am forced to switch. Furthermore, although Pursuit could be used to damage Blissey switching out, I found that Blissey’s just Wish/Sorfboiled the damage away, then switched out.
When looking at team support, Scizor aids the team by removing those pesky special walls that can pretty much ruin this team and helping Salamence weaken my foe’s pokémon for Zapdos and Starmie. Furthermore, Scizor’s excellent typing allows him to come in on a variety of moves and has excellent synergy with the rest of the team.
Swampert(M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/48SDef/208Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spe)
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Surf
- Earthquake
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Here you see the final member of my squad, Swampert. Swampert is my physical tank and insurance against Baton Pass teams and set up pokémon. Like Starmie, Swampert was suggested to me by Seven Deadly Sins as an insurance agent against Tyranitar. I decided to heed his advice because Swampert also counters a wide arrange of threats such as Heatran and is a great asset if I have to go on the defensive as I can roar out the threat and instantly go back on the offensive. Furthermore, Swampert provides much needed Stealth Rock and phasing support.
Swampert's EVs are in fact quite simple; The HP and special defence EVs allow me to survive a Draco Meteor from a Modest Choice Speced Salamence after SR damage. The remaining EVs were put into defence to maximise his physical tanking ability.
Swampert, as aforementioned, aids my team in a lot of ways, both defensively and offensively. Defensively because Swampert can handle a lot of the common threats in today’s metagame that can be a little troublesome for his five other squad mates (such as Tyranitar and Heatran) and by phasing out set up pokémon. Offensive wise, Swampert helps the team by setting up Stealth Rock, being able to deal damage from both sides of the spectrum (he is the only member of my team that can) and by phasing for secondary damage.
Closing Comments:
Overall, this team has been working incredibly well for me. Every team member has a job to do and they cover each other’s weaknesses very well. However, I believe that it is as good as I can make it and I’m now posting it as an RMT.
For Raters;
- There is only one pokémon that I will not use; Blissey. I find Blissey to be a boring pokémon and I really dislike using her. I ask that you please not recommend it. Thank you.
Thank you for reading my RMT and I hope that you enjoyed it.
