RMT: Shoddy OU

[Smallarf]

My Team has had some decent success recently, but on one occasion, got completely decimated. Just wondering what could be improved. The biggest problems seem to be Lucario, Weavile and Sleep/Status and stall teams. The most help is needed here. My main points are actually in each poke's second paragraph. The first is pretty standard stuff. Thunderbolt hits Gyarados stuff. Lets begin.

METAGROSS
Occa Berry
Adament
252 HP, 236 Atk, 12 Def, 8 Spe

Meteor Mash
Stealth Rock
Bullet Punch
Explosion

I've been using him as a suicide lead. Lay down Stealth rocks then unleash hell with Meteor Mashes. Bullet Punch KOs weakened Pokes and we explode when we're done. The occa berry protects me from fire attacks, allowing me to get in an extra strike.

The biggest issue I'm having here is taunt (obviously prevents my stealth rocking attempts), but the biggest threat I meet is Infernape. I usually send in my Heatran to take the fire attack if I haven't gotten rocks down, but that will be mentioned later. For taunters, I ussually try to out predict and hit them with a meteor mash as they taunt.

HEATRAN
Leftovers

4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe

Fire Blast
Earth Power
Substitute
Toxic -> HP Grass

Heatran come in and takes fire attacks. Depending on the scenario, he'll switch out (Infernape [gengar loves close combats]), hide behind a sub (things that fear him) or unleash HP grass for things that get in the way (read: swampert). After that, STAB, often Flash Fired Fire Blasts burn things, while earth power hits things weak to it.

I really don't have any complaints about this guy. He works pretty well as is.

ROTOM-H
Choice Scarf
Timid
4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe

Shadow Ball
Thunder Bolt -> Discharge
Overheat
Trick


Gengar has been replaced with the bulkier Rotom. Hopefully (haven't tested this out yet) Rotom will serve as a bulkier check, while still getting STAB Shadow Ball, along with STAB thunderbolt. Levitate stays and I trade Fighting for Fire. I've accepted Trick. Dropping my scarf for leftovers halfway through at the expense of my opponent is actually quite amusing.

SALAMENCE
Life Orb
Mild
84 Atk, 216 SpA, 208 Spe

Draco Meteor
Brick Break -> Earthquake
Flamethrower
Roost

Salamence comes in and usually starts off by using Draco Meteor. It's pure power ussually scares off what was there (or kills it quickly) and then Salamence usually brick breaks things till he switches out. Fire Blast/Flamethower for coverage, but I'm not sure on which one. I thought Fire Blast would be better (more power) but I've been getting screwed over on it's accuracy. Roost is to heal off Life orb/residual damage. I have changed to earthquake because before this, only Heatran carried a ground move, and that was causing some problems.

The only complaint about Salamence that I have is the Fire issue, stated above (resolved). He's been a great wall breaker/powerhouse so far.

STARMIE
Leftovers
Timid
136 HP, 156 Def, 216 Spe

Rapid Spin
Surf -> Recover
Thunder Bolt
Ice Beam

I had been running surf, but the lack of Ice moves was really starting to get me in deep trouble. So it was dropped in favor of Ice Beam. Starmie can also spin the rocks and spikes away to clear the way for whoever else can/needs to come in. Recover to keep her alive, Thunder Bolt for boltbeam with Ice Beam (mainly for Dragons and the like).

Starmie used to annoy me, but the problems were solved with the arrival of Ice Beam. This is basically the only member of the team I REALLY don't want to drop (and maybe Metagross). She can really save my team when I'm in a hole.

SCIZOR
Life Orb -> Choice Band
Adament
32 HP, 252 Atk, 224 Spe -> 176 HP, 252 Atk, 76 SpD, 4 Spe

Swords Dance -> U-Turn
Bullet Punch
Brick Break -> Super Power
X-Scissor -> Pursuit

Choice Banded Scizor I'm going to se as a scout. U-Turn in and out, or Bullet punch for a quick kill. Pursuit helps with ghosts/psychics and super power for power.

Ahhh, Scizor. So far, the only thing he has done for me in the past six or so games is bullet punch a weakened thing to death. This is the member I am most willing to replace, as long as my replacement has a priority move.
Now that he's changed a bit, I'm going to give him a chance.

FORMER MEMBERS

GENGAR
Choice Scarf
Hasty
4 Def, 252 SpA, 252 Spe -> 80 Atk, 252 SpA, 176 Spe

Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Explosion

Gengar usually comes in on fighters and waters, using thunder bolt and, on occasion, shadow ball to scare things off. I actually haven't needed to blow him up yet, but he can come in and detonate to take out a big threat. Choice Scarf helps me get the first strike, which is especially useful for explosion.

Just as with Heatran, I have very few gripes about this guy. He gets the job done and then gets out fast.

So, as I said before, I got messed up really bad and really couldn't recover from it. Just looking for some help here.

 

[MJizzle]

I would switch Scizor our for Skarmory, try that and see how it plays

 

[Smallarf]

Hmm, I never really liked the almost purely defensive style of Skamory. Also, Scizor has started (keyword started) to prove himself. Maybe if you can give me a little more information on what kind, why I might be swayed.

 

[MJizzle]

Impish 252DEF/200HP/56SPDEF
Spikes Roar Roost Bravebird

Not saying it will make your team perfect, I just think it would be a good addition to youre overall team, try it out and see if you can get that team going

 

[Radio]

If Infernape is giving your Metagross problems, you could go with Earthquake > Meteor Mash. A combo of EQ + BP will kill off any Infernape while Occa berry will allow you to survive their fire move.

 

[tab]

I wouldn't use Skarmory over Scizor. Instead, I'd make Scizor a Choice Bander with Bullet Punch/U-turn/Pursuit/Superpower.

 

[Revolution.Z]

Agreeing with Tab here CB Scizor is much more effective and generally it would fit into your team nicer. Perhaps Dragon Pulse over Toxic on heatran to hit Mence's/Lati@s harder or even HP ice to guarantee the OHKO on Mence who I think just survives with some HP Investment could someone confirm that?

If you suspect Taunt on a lead just go with the Mash and BP your opponent away. Not too many fragile Taunt leads can take a STAB Mash from a Meta. Oh and sending Heatran into a Nape when not scarfed is suicide. It will absorb the Fire move but if your not scarfed you wont outspeed it and the Ape will kill you with CC.

Flamethrower over Fire Blast in this scenario as you already have a Sp Atk investment and should be able to kill pokemon your aiming to take out. Skarm, Forry them lot.

Recover over a move on starmie. I would even consider it over Surf as the BoltBeam combo covers enough stuff and generally does hit things harder than surf. A possibility not a must.

GL

SF

 

[Smallarf]

Okay, I'll try out the CB Scizor. I'm also thinking that HP Ice is the better of the two for Heatran, so that will change. The only thing that worries me is that I no longer have any status moves to use.

In regards to meteor mashing taunters, I have been doing that, but half the time they just set up rocks and don't even taunt me. I'll just keep doing that though. Also, I usually double switch Heatran to Gengar on Infernape. Gengar gets in for free, then thunder bolts his team.

I'll also switch to flamethrower and surf respectively. I was just keeping surf for STAB, but if BoltBeam has enough coverage, I'm fine dropping it. I'll update the top post with these changes after school.

 

[Tarquin]

I would recommend a different EV Spread on your Gengar, to be kinder to your potential explosions. When I ran my Gengar, my spread was 252 SpA / 176 Spe / 80 Atk. 176 Speed allows it to outrun +ve natured +1 base 100 speed pokemon, like Jolly Scarf Flygon. It also gives you a point more speed over Rain Dance Kingdra that run 494 Speed to outrun Jolly Scarf Flygon and things. The extra power in explosion can really make the difference when catching a Blissey on the switch. Good Luck =D

 

[Stathakis]

from what I gathered, this is a heavy offense team with a goal to set up scizor in the lategame. so I'll try and keep that goal in mind.

the first thing I'd do is switch your starmie to a more offensively minded life orb starmie, as it tends to lure in spinblockers (rotom-a) and stroke them with insanely powerful hydro pumps as they try to come in on rapid spin. what this accomplishes is it gives you a good way to deal with rotoms without having to put on a pursuiter (aka keeping the offensive momentum intact). in addition to that, adding lomie to the team gives you a backup sweeper, so should your opponent's team pack four scizor checks and multiple hard counters, you have a different win condition to work with. this way, less types of teams are able to take you on. so, with lomie in mind, it might be to your advantage to use trick over explosion on gengar so you can get blissey out of the picture and actually hurt something else.

 

[Smallarf]

I like the new Gengar spread. Bigger booms are always better.

@ Stathakis: Actually, Scizor is just there. I didn't make the team oriented for him or anything. He is actually the newest member of the team. Also, I tried to make my team more of a bulky offensive, not pure power. Starmie is here because she can spin away rocks and attack as the need arises. She also fills in a nice niche with ice beam. As I said in my first post, I couldn't really care about Scizor. He just happened to fit in nicely with the team.

 

[matzemix]

Rotom-h over Gengar - STAB TB/SB, you keep levitate and it helps out with your Lucario weak.

 

[Smallarf]

Hmm, That actually seems like a great idea. I'll change that promptly. I also ran into a little trouble with a lack of ground moves. I have changed Salamence to have EQ instead of Brick Break to fix that.

 

[Stathakis]

I was actually on my hurry out the door when making the rat,e which is why I didn't complete it. however, if scizor is not your goal then what is? I mean, unless you'd like a team without a goal, which is fine, except the team will never get past mediocre ~_~

but if you want a good team call me

 

[Smallarf]

I never really designed this team around any one Poke. The closest thing to a goal that this team has is that it is mainly a bulky offensive one. I never really planned the team around getting Scizor in. The team wasn't really built around any one poke. I choose from what I would consider good, useful pokes and used that as the core of the team. After that, the other members basically filled in key points. Starmie came to get rid of Stealth Rocks and Heatran just happened to catch my eye as a nice powerhouse (I also like Fire types, and have liked Heatran since he first was revealed). If you really think that Having my team focus on a single poke, clearing the way for him and such, then let me know who and what would be the best way to go about that. I had originally dropped that idea because I didn't like putting all my faith in just him. But, if it will help my team out greatly to do that, I'm open to ideas.

 

[matzemix]

Hm, the last move on Rotom-h could be Trick ( for crippling blisseys and such things ) or HP[Ice/Grass] to hit Dragons or Swampert.

Imo HP[Ice] on a Leftcovers-Heatran is useless since you only need it to hit dragons and youre too slow to outrun Sala, Flygon, Latias or whatever w/o Scarf, and so they easily OHKO Tran.
So because of that, use HP[Grass] on Heatran to hit Swampert, which is slower. So you could use HP[Ice] on your Rotom-h.

 

[Smallarf]

Seems like a reasonable point. Changes will be made.

 

[MJizzle]

If you suspect Taunt on a lead just go with the Mash and BP your opponent away. Not too many fragile Taunt leads can take a STAB Mash from a Meta. Oh and sending Heatran into a Nape when not scarfed is suicide. It will absorb the Fire move but if your not scarfed you wont outspeed it and the Ape will kill you with CC.

Yea but ussually when you switche Heatran into infernapes flamethrower, they will assume it is scarfed and switch out

 

[Smallarf]

amazingly, no one has done that yet. They just stay in and use close combat as I switch to the immune ghost (now rotom) You do bring a good point though. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

 

[iRonMonk3y]

SCIZOR
Life Orb -> Choice Band
Adament
32 HP, 252 Atk, 224 Spe

Consider a new EV spread for Scizor. 176 HP / 252 Atk / 76 SpDef / 4 Spe allows you to take spAtks more efficiently.

 

[Smallarf]

I assume the 30% para rate on discharge is better then the 10 power sacrificed? I'll change the EV's accordingly though.