The Wrath of Fido

[Ninja Dewott]

THE WRATH OF FIDO​

Ok, so I'm back with a team that really needs rating. I've not put much thought into the showing-off of the team, so I won't barble on much this RMT and I didn't exactly put much thought into the title either. I found a funny picture of a Dog wearing sunglasses though, so it's all good.​

Basically, after months of using Rain Teams I got a little bored, and I decided to revert back to the type of team that I first used when I started competitive battling: Sand Teams.​

This team is featured around getting a Stoutland sweep. I find Stoutland to be a rather underrated OU Threat and he is indeed capable of sweeping teams weakened by Hazards, which is another feature of my team.​

So, like I said, no rambling, on with the team.​

TEAM IN DETAIL​

Changes in Bold​

Tyranitar (M) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower​

So Tyranitar was clearly going to make an appearance on this team for summoning the Sand that allows Stoutland to sweep. Tyranitar's set has switched multiple times over the course of the team's life. Eventually, it ended up as a CB set, but I swapped the Band for a Chople Berry to help deal with Terrakion. Crunch and Stone Edge are powerful STABs that with TTar's maxed attack will do plenty of damage. Pursuit is for trapping and Superpower is for coverage. 76 Speed EVs allow me to outspeed Metagross, Skarmory and Politoed who have no speed investment. The item has been switched for a Shed Shell, to make Dugtrio (especially when combined with other weather) less threatening. The 76 Speed EVs have been moved to SDef to help me sponge attack and trap stuff, like Latios. The Speed EVs weren't that useful.​

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Thunder Wave/Hidden Power [Fire]​

Celebi was brought onto the team primarily as a Rotom-W counter, but has performed admirably in many other regards, and is one of the MVPs of the team. The Timid Nature and given EVs are built for sweeping, and the 4SDef EVs mean that Genesect gets a less useful Attack Boost upon switching in. Giga Drain is Celebi's main STAB and the HP regain is very useful. Earth Power is coverage and is great for hitting Heatran etc. Recover is more reliable recovery and Thunder Wave is to cripple stuff that might switch in, such as Genesect and Latios. I am considering replacing it for HP Fire though.​

Stoutland (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Return
- Ice Fang​

- Crunch

- Superpower​

So here's the guy the team's built around, Stoutland. You'll have all seen this set before no doubt, so I won't go into much detail. Return is Stoutland's main STAB and it is truly threatening to teams when Stoutland is at double speed and holding a CB, especially if they have no resists or immunities left. Crunch and Superpower are there to remove said resists that might switch in, Crunch handling Ghosts and Superpower Fighting and Rock Types. Ice Fang is useful coverage and is great for hitting Dragonite and the metagame's latest threat, Garchomp. Dun dun dun....​

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 224 HP / 252 Def / 32 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird​

Again, this is another very common set that you'll all have seen, so I won't go into much detail. Max Defence investment makes Skarm the team's dedicated Physical Wall and primary check to Scarf Terrakion *shakes fist*. Skarmory's main job is placing Hazards and spreading the Hazard Damage to make it easier for Stoutland to sweep. The new EV Spread allows Skarmory to outspeed Wobuffet and Specs Magnezone​

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Lava Plume
- Toxic​

Specially Defensive Heatran was bought onto this team with pretty much a single purpose: countering Genesect. It was such a threat to the previous draft of the team, it had to be done. It does however, free up a moveslot on TTar by being the team's SRer, which is always nice. Anyway, Lava Plume is the move that allows Heatran to actually hurt Genesect but the Burn Chance is nice for a lot of things. Roar is to spread hazard damage, again helping Stoutland to sweep and Toxic serves to cripple switch ins such as Rotom-W.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Recover​

When I was forced to bring Heatran onto the team, I faced a tricky dilemma whether to replace Tentacruel, my spinner, or Latios my fast, special sweeper. In the end, I decided to combine these two roles into one Pokemon: Starmie. Granted, it doesn't do each job as effectively, but it's versatility is awesome and it did remind why I always used to use Starmie on my teams. Starmie also completed a pseudo-FWG on my team with Heatran and Celebi, which is nice. Pseudo because Starmie can't be switching into too much. The set was changed to a more defensive variant to help deal with Terrakion. It also sticks around longer, which is very useful for keeping Hazards out the way and ensuring Stoutland a clean switch-in.​

THE END​

Yeah, that's the end of the RMT I guess, thanks for reading, despite it being slightly dull and all comments and critisisms appreciated! :)​

 

[destinyunknown]

Hey, this team is pretty solid and there aren't many things that need to be changed, though I have some ideas that may help you improve the team. The first thing I have noticed is that your team is a bit weak to Terrakion, as it can easily take down your defensive core (and honestly, Chople Berry isn't a good solution). There are a few things you could do, but I believe that simply changing Starmie's set to a more defensive one would be enough. Defensive Starmie isn't just better because it's a Terrakion check, but also because it's has more survavility, which is very helpful when facing other defensive teams. Here's the set:

Starmie@Leftovers | Natural Cure
Timid Nature | 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 Spe
Scald / Psyshock / Rapid Spin / Recover

The other thing I have noticed is that your team has a lot of trouble when facing Sun teams, especially if they have Dugtrio, because you will probably lose either Tyranitar or Heatran, thus opening your team to threats like Venusaur or Genesect. While this may seem like an odd suggestion, you could try using Shed Shell on Heatran as the item, and if lacking recovery bothers you, using a Rest / Sleep Talk / Lava Plume / Roar moveset (with Shed Shell) could be a good idea. Of course, you're losing a Stealth Rock settler this way, so you can put Stealth Rock on the last Celebi moveslot or replace some Tyranitar move for Stealth Rock.

 

[TGMD]

Hey Ninja Dewott, nice team! I'm a big fan of stoutland in OU and it's always nice to see other people using it too.

Your entire team was built around a Stoutland sweep and it needs sand to do so successfully, if your opponent has a Dugtrio + weather combination then they can trap Tyranitar and set up their own weather, if this happens you will not only lose Tyranitar, you'll lose the viability of the most important member on your team. To help remedy this, I suggest running a Shed Shell over your current Chople Berry on Tyranitar. With Shed Shell intact, Dugtrio's threat level towards Tyranitar and Stoutland is completely negated and you'll find it much easier to fufill your team's main goal. The only reason you mentioned for Chople Berry on Tyranitar was to help against Terrakion, and if you take DestinyUnknown's Bulky Starmie suggestion, you'll no longer need that extra help with Terrakion.

You may want to try changing Skarmory's spread to: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd. With this more efficient spread and extra speed investment you're now able to outspeed max speed Wobbuffet, allowing you to lock yourself into a favourable move before they Encore you, and standard Specs Magnezone, allowing you to get off an extra layer of Spikes before Skarmory is KO'd.

Anyway, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team :)

 

[shiranai]

Nice team you have, this little dog gave me very hard times in UU, so I wish the OU players have the same nightmare.

In your TTar's EVs Spd, I can't see any advantages in this spread. Let's think a little: you gave me 3 mons that TTrar can outspeed with this investment, tha is Metagross, Politoed and Skarmory. You'll not want to outspeed any weather inducer, since the slower one is who succeed, and with the SDef boost you have with sandstorm, most Politoeds will not do a thing to your TTar; since you're not running Taunt you will not want to outspeed Skarmory too, with Superpower you can hit the steel bird a SE hit after a Roost; Metagross isn't so common, but the build you have here won't do a thing to it too, so... I would invest these 76 in SDef, this way you could switch TTar in a special sweeper like Lati@s, take the hit thanks to the boost, and trap it with Pursuit. i don't like Chople Berry too, maybe a Shed Shell or a Leftovers would be a better option.

 

[Ninja Dewott]

Hey guys,

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions, they're all really helpful and I'll certainly be using all of them in some way. I would just like to say a few things though:

1) - @Shirinai: I'm aware that TTar being slower than Toed lets me get weather up easier, but against Rain Teams I'll never lead with TTar, I'll almost always do so with Starmie or Celebi. The EVs are there to outspeed it if I need to finish it off. However, all your other points are perfectly valid, so I will be changing this.

2) - @Everyone, I guess: The Shed Shell is a nice idea, I've never used it before but it certainly looks like it'll be worth a try here. I'll be running it on TTar, but not on Heatran. I find recovery of sorts almost essential on Heatran, but, as you can see, not such a necessity on TTar. I also think that people may not expect a Shed Shell Tyranitar, so it may give me essentially a free switch-in on Dugtrio.

Once again, thanks a lot :D

Any more suggestions?

 

[WaterBomb]

A couple suggestions on Stoutland, since I use him a lot.

1) Switch out Return for Frustration. This means that Ditto can't copy you and sweep, because the Ditto will usually have 255 Happiness, making Return useless.
2) Switch Crunch for Pursuit, so you can sneak an early kill in on pokes like Latios and Starmie.
3) Switch Ice Fang for Wild Charge. Ice Fang is hilariously weak outside of Gliscor, Garchomp and Landorus, and you don't want to get locked into it. Wild Charge allows you to kill Jellicent instead.

Also, why do you need to outspeed Magnezone on your Skarmory? I don't see the point if you're not damaging it anyway. I would move those Speed EVs back into its bulk, or even its Attack if you want.

 

[Yeezy D]

^ Keep Ice Fang over Wild Charge. Its the only Ice-type move that your team carries, and in spite of 'hilarity in weakness outside of Garchomp, Landorus and Gliscor', which are up there for some of the most commonly abused Pokes in OU, and also major threats against a team like this that only carries Ice Fang as a quad-effectiveness counter to them, I'm pretty sure you need them.

 

[TGMD]

A couple suggestions on Stoutland, since I use him a lot.

1) Switch out Return for Frustration. This means that Ditto can't copy you and sweep, because the Ditto will usually have 255 Happiness, making Return useless.
2) Switch Crunch for Pursuit, so you can sneak an early kill in on pokes like Latios and Starmie.
3) Switch Ice Fang for Wild Charge. Ice Fang is hilariously weak outside of Gliscor, Garchomp and Landorus, and you don't want to get locked into it. Wild Charge allows you to kill Jellicent instead.

Also, why do you need to outspeed Magnezone on your Skarmory? I don't see the point if you're not damaging it anyway. I would move those Speed EVs back into its bulk, or even its Attack if you want.

Although I usually use Pursuit over Crunch myself, Crunch can 2HKO Jellicent (so you don't have to resort to Wild Charge) and Ninja Dewott already has a Tyranitar for trapping Lati@s, Starmie etc.

I wouldn't usually recommend having Ice Fang due to it's awful power and it dosen't really miss many crucial OHKOs after rocks but now that Garchomp has been released; having Ice Fang could be pretty important. Without Ice Fang, Ninja Dewott's only way of stopping a full health Garchomp is Skarmory and a +2 LO Fire Fang from a Garchomp is a guarenteed 2HKO, even without LO it still has a chance of 2HKOing. Magnezone is a relatively common Garchomp partner, so: Skarmory really can't be relied on to stop Garchomp from sweeping Ninja Dewott's team.

Skarmory needs 24 speed EVs to outspeed Wobbuffet, so for the cost of 8 Defense EVs, Skarmory can set-up an extra layer of Spikes against Specs Magnezone, I use a Specs Magnezone in my current team and I know from experience that, that extra layer of spikes can be incredibly irritating.

 

[Ninja Dewott]

Yes, Waterbonmb, these guys have pretty much said what I wanted to say. Well, I guess they're mostly their changes after all.

Wild Charge vs Ice Fang is always a tricky question as far as Stoutland is concerned, I do usually opt for Ice Fang and I thought it'd be especially important with Garchomp back in OU. I ain't takin' no chances!

As for Jellicent, it's not much of a problem anyway. Celebi is an excellent counter to it, except in the rare cases where it packs Shadow Ball and the same, I guess, goes for Starmie.