The Seventh Man
Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Hi folks!:naughty: I've been battling competitively for about 2 years now and decided to post this as a farewell to DPP. Over the past few months that I've been using this exact variant I have found a very balanced team that relies on status stallers, surprise kills, late game sweeping, and usage of the illustrious "Seventh Man" (I'll explain below). The goal of creating this team was to take conventional OU contenders and add creative movesets. Its definitely not a perfect team but it finds a good balance between sweep and stall with minimal setup. So here we go...
Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Hi folks!:naughty: I've been battling competitively for about 2 years now and decided to post this as a farewell to DPP. Over the past few months that I've been using this exact variant I have found a very balanced team that relies on status stallers, surprise kills, late game sweeping, and usage of the illustrious "Seventh Man" (I'll explain below). The goal of creating this team was to take conventional OU contenders and add creative movesets. Its definitely not a perfect team but it finds a good balance between sweep and stall with minimal setup. So here we go...
Lucario (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk,-SpAtk)
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Ice Punch
Lucario is sexy, a lucario lead is surprisingly sexy:naughty:. While most leads attempt to set up stealth rock this guy just wants to hit something. Inner Focus is for those stupid enough to Fake Out Lucario while his focus sash is a nice safety net against combustables. Some people run a SD set over Ice punch but cocky dragonite switch-ins deserve punishment (besides I get taunted way to often) If Luke see's something he doesn't like (i.e. Swampert, Metagross, Hippodown) then he can switch out to either Zapdos or Gyarados. Lucario as a lead beats: Aerodactyl, Azelf, Dragonite, Infernape,
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Infernape (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk,-SpA)
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Mach Punch
- ThunderPunch
Oh, my sweet, Infernape... Physical infernape still breaks walls, and does it well. 120 Dual Stab+336 Base Attack is monstrous. Mach Punch finishes off everything weak to it at about 40%-50% HP including Heatran and TTar rendering their scarfs useless. Thunderpunch takes care of silly gyarados who thinks he can DD on the switch. Unfortunately this ape was never made to last. When faster pokes come in to revenge kill, I usually switch out to Cresselia or Gyarados, both of which will take more than 1 hit of unboosted damage.
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Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP/252 Def/96 SpDef
Impish nature (+Def,-SpAtk)
- Roar
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic
- Waterfall
Gyarados is the newest member of the team as I recently discovered his walling abilities. Intimidate was a huge factor in picking this guy up and is probably one of the best abilities in the game. The idea is to cripple scarfers that are trying to revenge kill with twave or to switch into any wall toxic and roar it out if its boosting (see:Hippodown). I didn't want to use the ResTalk set so I threw this together. Even though it work I think I can tweak it a bit, any suggestions?
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Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP/228 Def/32 Spd
Bold nature (+Def,-Atk)
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power[grass]
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
Zapdos checks a plethora of OU threats and takes hits like a champ. His coverage is amazing. I chose HP Grass over Ice because (why else) roaring swampert gives my team some problems. He almost always roosts off icebeam dmg unless I miss a prediction. This guy completely walls scizor, takes care of metagross and magnezone and has the bulk to outlast haxrachi about 50% of the time. I would call him the most underrated pokemon in 4th gen OU.
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Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SpDef
Bold nature (+Def,-Atk)
- Lunar Dance
- Moonlight
- Reflect
- Toxic
Here's where the 7th man strategy comes into play. Cresselia should be OU. reflect allows it to stall almost everything unboosted (even TTar). Reflect makes up for the lack of invested Defense EV's. The idea is to pull out cresselia late game to stall out a sweeper or at least poison him, set up reflect, rinse and repeat until cresselia can't take another hit. She follows up with lunar dance and saves a sweeper that was either crippled or drained of HP. Lucario's burned? Now he has full health no status and a fresh focus sash. Infernape's paralyzed? Now he can outspeed that pesky Life Orb Lucario about to finish you off. The strategy isn't perfect but it work in multiple situations.
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Gengar (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd/252 SpAtk/4 SpDef
Modest nature (+SpAtk,-Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
Choice scarf Gengar has many pros that outweigh his cons, especially as a late game sweeper. It can OHKO many of the games top threats Like Scizor, TTar, other Gengar, and even +1 Speed Gyarados. All rotom forms get decimated and with prediction you can snab easy kills from Focus Blast weak switch-ins. Shadow Ball cleans up anything under around 33% and I run modest to ensure KOs.
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The funnest quality about this team is watching the enemy have to fend off two Lucarios/Infernapes/Zapdoses/Gyaradoses as well as the surprise value of the group. This is the most OU friendly team I've ever made but it still needs a ton of work! So leave thy comments, criticisms, and suggestions!!
Hope you enjoyed!
