Rapid offensive! V2. (OU RMT)

[pokefan0]

V2:
This is version two of my original rapid offensive team and has one major change to it, Swampert for Crocune. With this new addition, the element of Stealth Rock has been added to my opponents side as well as a phazer and makes it alot harder for him to free switch-in on my U-turns because of the punishment his poke's will be taking from Stealth Rock. The basic premise is still the same, outpredict, outmaneuver, and out punch the opponent with a lineup of heavy hitters, and the non-restricting presence of having to set up, other than subchamp who really needs no substitute.

Swampert @ Leftovers
Relaxed Nature
Torrent
Ev's: 240 HP/ 216 DEf/ 52 SpA
Moveset
~Roar
~Stealth Rock
~Earthquake
~Ice Beam
Role: Swampert came in and replaced zapdos as my lead for his bulkyness and ability to set up that all imporant stealth rock, as well as phaze those predictable ninjask leads and make him regret wanting to switch in. With Ice Beam and Earthquake he attains his traditional mixpert role with the ability to OHKO opposing salamence switch-ins who are looking to set up and try and OHKO with a life orb outrage, as well as destroy some of the common metagross leads, and phaze out before an explosion, making him think twice about switching it back in.

Moveset: Because my team lacks a phazer and stealth rock, swampert naturally gets the nod for both roar and SR, Surf is redundant on pert as the common leads who will take damage also usually will take massive damage from ice beam as well (Aerodactyl, mence, ninjask, etc) and EQ for the actual "Mixpert" title, as well as being a reliable STAB.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Bold Nature
Levitate
Ev's:252 HP/ 220 DEf/ 36 Spe
~Roost
~Thunderbolt
~Heatwave
~HP grass
Role: So thanks to suggestions I changed zapdos set to a physically bulky set with roost, giving me much more flexbility since he is not a choice user anymore and providing me with the exact same usage that zapdos previously had with much more survivability provided from roost, the attacks are the same except for his damage absorbing move which is very helpful.

Machamp @ Leftovers
Adamant Nature
No Guard
Ev's: 216 HP/ 252 Atk/ 40 SpD
Moveset
~DynamicPunch
~Stone Edge
~Substitute
~Payback

Role: Ahh subchamp, a beast and problem for any team who isnt expecting it, his premise is simple yet when played right he can dent half of a team in a few turns easily. I switch him in on a pokemon that can't really do much or is locked in to a pursuit, like a CB scizor might be, substitute on the predicted switch out, then reak havoc from there. He can also be U-turned in on any of the numerous pokemon I have containing it to take a hit for them and allow me a free switch in/substitute.

Moveset: Machamp has No Guard, which gives him a nice amount of possibilities for moves, while moves like toxic and will-o-wisp will never miss, he has subsitute to help take care of these possible threats. DynamicPunch deals an incredible amount of damage to a wide variety of pokemon as well as throwing in that ever annoying factor of confusion. Payback is for unsuspecting ghost types looking to score a switch out( hi gengar) and stone edge, which because of his ability will never miss, takes care of all those flying types, provided a substitute is up.

Infernape @ Life Orb
Naive Nature
Blaze
Ev's: 252 ATk/64 SpA/ 192 Spe
Moveset
~Overheat
~Stone EDge
~Mach Punch
~Close Combat
Role: Still plays the same role as the last infernape but adds a little bit of a mix being physically based with priority moves that allow me to take on counter that may have previously outsped Infernape, Stone Edge provides a gyrados check- keeping him from really setting up on me, Overheat for a special move if needed, Close COmbat as always for a nice staple and boosted STAB move.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Technician
Ev's: 248 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 Spe
Moveset
~Pursuit
~Bullet Punch
~Superpower
~U-turn
Role: Yet another U-turner that founds this team, CB scizor can deal out immense damage with every one of his attacks, pursuit destroys psychics that run, making him good at trapping, with Choice Band he hits 591 Atk which is just ungodly making him a threat for any team to handle, and one of my favorite members.

Moveset: Pursuit as I mentioned before takes care of most psychics. BUllet Punch is my most reliable STAB and does heavy damage to basically everything that doesn't resist it, especially dragons, U-turn is a staple of this team as well as Scizor's movepool, making him the best candidate to just come in, U-turn in your face and keep it going. Superpower is one of my most underused moves to this day, but is there just in case given it will have it's uses. ( Hi Blissey.)

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Adamant Nature
Levitate
Ev's: 4HP/ 252 Atk/ 252Spe
Moveset
~U-turn
~Earthquake
~Outrage
~Fire Punch
Role: Quite a devastating pokemon when used right. HIs best move to this day is to switch in on a pokemon using earthquake, then fire punch predicting the OBVIOUS switch to a steel. He doesn't generally outspeed most things, but the 252 Spe puts him at 299 Spe giving him the ability to outrun most things like SD luke who are running a positive nature. Like scizor, with CB, he reaches 492 Atk which is enough to dent a ton of the metagame and makes him all the more attractive to my U-turn rotation.

Moveset: U-turn is obviously a necessary choice to keep the confusion going as apart of my U-turn rotation, and coupled with CB will hurt alot. Earthquake is a natural stab of Flygons and when predicting a switch in to zapdos thunderbolt can provide me with a free switch in to a neutral attack and immediately come back with a shot of his own, Outrage is extremely useful for lategame when all the pokes are weakened and not immediate threats to flygon, in which case ice poke switch ins as well as steels will take massive damage from Fire Punch and about 99% of the time provides me with OHKO-2HKO's on everything except skarmory who is handled by alot of my team.

How the team works: The team works on a basis of adaptability and whatever the situation calls for, there really is no set pattern as to how I use the team. Swampert is the only team member who really has a set role and that is to set up rocks, roar for scouting, or based on his survivability being as sturdy as he is, get a few nice KO's here and there from the opposing lead or whoever is unfortunately switched in thanks to roar. One of my favorite things about the team is the constant flexibility of using U-turns and Subchamps looming presence as one who can stay in there and deal heavy blows to the opponents team and frustrate them as to who to switch in, helping me even more with my scouting and predicting of the opposing team. So far it's given me a very impresive record with only 3 losses to date and most of those are from just a lack of palying the battle right and having bad mistakes or lucky breaks cost the game, which is the basis of any pokemon battle and really is no way around that.

Rate, Hate, but no stealing :D

 

[pokefan0]

COMPOSITE OFFENSIVE THREAT LIST:

Tyranitar:Handled easily by Machamp/Scizor.
Gyarados: Handled by Zapdos..but can cause issues if brought in at the wrong time.
Infernape: Usually my infernape can do the job as well as machamp, zapdos.
Azelf: Scizor unless it's carrying fire blast, then payback does the trick.
Rhyperior : Infernape handles it with grass knot, zapdos walls it completely and can OHKO with HP grass.
Electivire: Flygon takes care of it, especially non-boosted.
Heracross: Can be annoying but handled easily usually by flygon, or zapdos.
Salamence: Infernape, Zapdos, Machamp all take care of it.
Togekiss: Machamp isn't the immediate switch in but he does handle it, as well as Zapdos.
Gengar: BP from scizor and machamp's payback.
Raikou: Flygon switching in on a thunderbolt can revenge kill, usually is never much of a threat.
Lucario: Infernape's fire blast, zapdos Heatwave.
Starmie: Any U-turn one shots it.
Weavile: Machamp/Infernape.
Dugtrio: Another annoying one but any grass/ice type attacks take care of it.
Alakazam: U-turn/Pursuit all take care of it.
PorygonZ: Machamp and infernape both.
Staraptor: Zapdos all the way.
Slowbro: Usually zapdos because of it being physically bulky, but poses no threat to my physical attackers.
Machamp: My own machamp most of the time.
Jolteon: Very fast and annoying threat. Flygon can wall it if it's not running HP Ice.
Aerodactyl: Usually a lead, swampert's icebeam OHKO's.
Snorlax: Any physical attacker will take care of it, curselax can't be allowed to set up.
Zapdos: My own zapdos- outspeeds it and deals neutral damage thunderbolts, machamp can also counter with stone edge.
Blissey: Infernape/Machamp take care of it nicely.
Suicune: Infernape's grass knot will take it out if they switch in on it, zapdos' thunderbolt will.
Sceptile: Heatwave from zapdos, infernape's fire blast is iffy.
Breloom: Swampert is OHKO'd unless it's switched in on an icebeam, Machamp's dynamicpunch deals 94%-OHKO, as well as scizor's BP.
Ninjask: Phazed out by swampert and OHKO"d by much of the team.
Metagross: Typically handled by Zapdos, infernape, Machamp even if not switched in on meteor mash.
Heatran: Swampert walls it completely unless running HP grass( rare), in that case flygon can, machamp if needed.
Celebi: Most annoying threat to my team, ice attacks handle it, if infernape outruns and lands a fireblast, factoring in SR can OHKO it. Any U-turn will also dent or OHKO.
Jirachi: Handled by nearly all of my team, no real threat presented by it.

 

[pokefan0]

Team Building:
I started out working around a lead, leads are usually the biggest component of a team and so I figured if I had what I wanted in other places then the lead would come to me naturally so I started like this:
Electricity:
One thing I always have to have on my team is a user of electric moves, and one that is definitely a bitch to kill as a dead electric user is what is, useless. I went through a few considerations of electivire, jolteon, and zapdos. Looking through all of these i saw an obvious favorite for one important thing, ground resistance. Zapdos resisted ground and brought that element of surprise to my team with the unusual set I went with which no opponent would expect over the usual bulky dos that runs around so the first pokemon that made it to my team was my Scarfods:

Revenge:
The next member of my team was one that has been around on it for along time, and one that I held a very high opinion of as it has been a reliable revenge killer for alot of the Metagame revolution especially after the addition of BUllet Punch to his nasty arsenal, and Choice Banded only makes him that much deadlier coupled with U-turn to force the opponent to continually switch, and so the nod went to Scizor.

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The team so far.

More U-turns:
In this next section I tackled it pretty easily and pretty quickly, with much consideration going into who I wanted but when it came down to it one of my favorite things is the ability to constantly U-turn and force the opponent to think about his moves more carefully, and allowing me to scout because my best aspect is prediction. The U-turn aspect plus the need of a dragon to grace the presence of my team and more attacking force gave me the gift of Flygon.

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Fiery Ape:
After I had come to these 3 pokemon, I realized I had 3 choice users that needed some compliment to them, consdiering the constant U-turning they would do would provide me with substantial damage output and give me the ability to incorporate a pokemon that would easily sweep late game especially after any of his counters were effectively weakened or taken out of the game. There are many options for this slot, but one stuck out because of his nice type coverage out of all of his moves, and the nasty reputaton of speed and mixed attacking; Infernape.

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The Champ:
Once I reviewed this team, I added one of my favorite members who provides a check to anything that would normally counter this group of pokemon, and really provides me with a decent scouter because of his ability to deal high damage once he efficiently throws in a substitute and mix up the way the opponent has to attack because of his ability to confuse and stay substituted as a result of this; Machamp.

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The Lead:
And so it came down to the end of my teambuilding, and all that was left was one pokemon-my lead. There are alot of candidates for this position, with most pokemon in the game having the ability to lead in some shape or fashion. I tried many things, but in the end the pokemon that rose as the most effective lead for this team was that of mixpert. His ability to set up rocks is legendary, he's always been a great memeber of my team, and he provides that ability to phaze, entry damage, check dragons with ice beam, and provides the reliable EQ stab early in the game.

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[pokefan0]

Phew..quiet in here.

 

[Stallion]

This team does have potential, but has a major weakness in Swords Dance Lucario. It only comes in on a Zapdos Hidden Power Grass or a Scizor Pursuit, but when it does it will heavily damage your team, with only Scizor really stopping it after it has CCed a few of your members into oblivion. There are two solutions to this really. The first is to make Zapdos a bulky version with Leftovers. Honestly, Scarf Zapdos is rubbish, as it is forced to take 25 % on each switch in without being able to recover it off. That and the fact that it doesn't have defensive EV's means your once solid Lucario counter is pretty much killed by an Extremespeed after Stealth Rock (which is a common enough battle condition to assume is around always). The second is to make Infernape a physically based mix with Mach Punch to smack around Luke and bypass Extremespeed's priority. I like option one better however, as it allows you to deal with Swampert more effectively as well as not have to be forced to play around it. Even with Nape, unless you can predict the SD perfectly, you will often have to sacrifice to get it in, which isn't really good on a bulky offense team such as yours. Speaking of Infernape, it doesn't really do much for your team that Machamp doesn't, although I do see why you put it in. You could keep Ape and make it a physically based mix as well as make Zapdos a lefties variant actually (so option A and B combined). Overheat/Stone Edge/Close Combat/Mach Punch is very good for two reasons. Firstly, it stops Gyarados from setting up on you (which can potentially hurt your team) and secondly, it has pretty much the same counters as Machamp. This means that once Infernape severely weakens the opposing Flying type enough for it to be in SR range, Machamp has a party as well as Flygon

Speaking of Flygon, change it to a to a Choice Scarf version now that Zapdos is a Lefties variant. Your team isn't that fast, and it allows you to at worst Speed tie with the Salamence that would usually put a huge dent in you after a DD.

Nice team though and well thought out, I'm suprised that the only way you got a rate was by PMing me and that everyone overlooked it.

Gl :)

 

[pokefan0]

Okay, I made all the necessary changes in bold that you suggested, how does it look? :D
Rates!

 

[Stallion]

PS - Max out Flygon's Speed :). Tell me how your changes go after you playtest them :)

 

[pokefan0]

Well, not too well sadly.
I still had a pretty bad luke weakness, i'm going to chalk alot of it up to my inexperience as a battler in and of itself.

 

[paramylodon]

I'm surprised at the lack of comments, you put a nice amount of effort into this RMT.

Also, gyarados isn't necessarilly handled by zapdos. Offensive variants can OHKO with stone edge after a DD.
Zapdos also can't into a rhyperior's stone edge, but if you get it in on an eq or with a free switch, you should be fine (rhyperior thankfully is simply not fast enough to actually sweep, even if it can get a kill...or very common).

A final comment would be that I disagree with your philosophy here:

and the non-restricting presence of having to set up

You do not have to set up, and it is only restricting in the sense that you have to sacrafice a one of your four moves to do it. The ability to set up is an excelent way to exploit free turns, and generally setting up pays for itself, if you can. While not much in your team has options when it comes to setting up, doing so is often the key to winning the game due to the tremendous benefit it provids in regards to damage output (and outrunning otherwise faster enemies).
Speaking of which, if your lead is weakened, your team could be devestated by salazone. Once 'zone removes scizor (possibly getting a substitute up in the process if it was a substitute variety and came in after you revenge killed somethnig with bullet punch), and +speed nature mence, if it finds the time to grab a dd, would sweep (generally, it could take the hit necessary from a lot of your pokemon).
I don't know how well you do against gyarados, but if one does KO zapdos with stone edge, then roar might be your only option.
Here is a comment I discussing the potential warrants of proect that I typed up and was lcoated earlier in my post, but I removed it when thinkig more about gyaraods:

How much does roar benefit you on swampert? Gyarados looks like the only thing you might have to roar with any regularity. The reason I mention this is because I think protect is something that may be worth running on the lead pert, because after both you and your opponent set up rocks people often try to blow up. If you catch them on the explosion, then you have a huge advantage, and if not, after that they will be very wary about trying to blow up your swampert (or simply try it next turn as you can't protect then). Since you state you win by outpredicting and outmanuevering, protect can certainly help there (letting you scout attacks, as long as you don't try something silly like using protect against an enemy who has a set up move), as well as buy an extra turn of leftovers recovery (or stall out an outrage to speed up the process of getting to confusion). Of course, you'd lose the ability to phaze and rack up entry hazzard damage...and looking at your threat list perhaps ninjask would be a little more annoying.
Like I said I'm not sure how important phazing is to you, but protect seems like it is something that could be worth a try.

Perhaps you could try it if you find some better way to handle gyara.
Other then roar, it looks like you do not have much that can really try to stop it.
An offensive team that packs multiple pokemon that can set up looks like it can soften and sweep your team quite effectively.

 

[pokefan0]

I've honestly begun to notice alot of what you have said myself.
The team seems sound enough, but they're are issues that arise and those issues lead to pretty bad losses, so looking at your sound logic, do you have any immediate suggestions?
If you need to direct those in the forms of PM"s as to not overflow the RMT that would be fine, and if a full revamp is needed feel free to discuss that with me as well.
Anything to build on and improve . :)

 

[Astamatitos]

I like this team. :)

I can't help but note how much more suited Celebi would be in your team rather than Zapdos.

A U-turn Celebi would greatly benefit your team's main offensive core, that being Infernape, Scizor and Flygon.
Infernape's biggest disadvantage is that it is not able to switch in to pretty much anything without carrying a lot of risk with it. That being said, i've already made it pretty obvious that U-turn should also be your greatest friend when running Ape on any of your teams.
On top of that by using Celebi you would not only be increasing your main offense by a simple U-turn to any of your team members, seeing as you are running many revenge killers, you would be also enhancing your fighting Resistance seeing as Celebi is a more sturdy wall than Zapdos. (Not Stealth Rock weak being it's biggest asset)

As for the Celebi set:

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP/220 Def/8 Spd/40 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
- U-turn

The Special Attack evs are there so that you always OHKO Scizor.

Last but not least, i don't really find your team weak to Lucario, all of your Pokemon have a way to OHKO it, and should you be locked onto a Pursuit with Scizor, you can always play it around and end up Mach Punching it with Infernape. But that's unlikely.

 

[CREAM_93]

yeah this team is pretty good, you seem to have the ability to fight back against almost the entire metagame, barring lucario as mentioned before. and im pretty sure zapdos' only ability is pressure which could work in satlling out the occasional CC from luke and roost it off.

 

[pokefan0]

I like this team. :)

I can't help but note how much more suited Celebi would be in your team rather than Zapdos.

A U-turn Celebi would greatly benefit your team's main offensive core, that being Infernape, Scizor and Flygon.
Infernape's biggest disadvantage is that it is not able to switch in to pretty much anything without carrying a lot of risk with it. That being said, i've already made it pretty obvious that U-turn should also be your greatest friend when running Ape on any of your teams.
On top of that by using Celebi you would not only be increasing your main offense by a simple U-turn to any of your team members, seeing as you are running many revenge killers, you would be also enhancing your fighting Resistance seeing as Celebi is a more sturdy wall than Zapdos. (Not Stealth Rock weak being it's biggest asset)

As for the Celebi set:

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP/220 Def/8 Spd/40 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
- U-turn

The Special Attack evs are there so that you always OHKO Scizor.

Last but not least, i don't really find your team weak to Lucario, all of your Pokemon have a way to OHKO it, and should you be locked onto a Pursuit with Scizor, you can always play it around and end up Mach Punching it with Infernape. But that's unlikely.

It's my brain child :)
and thank you for the suggestion, I will definitely try that out and adjust it accordingly if I find it highly succesfull. :D
Rates!

 

[Stallion]

I like this team. :)

I can't help but note how much more suited Celebi would be in your team rather than Zapdos.

A U-turn Celebi would greatly benefit your team's main offensive core, that being Infernape, Scizor and Flygon.
Infernape's biggest disadvantage is that it is not able to switch in to pretty much anything without carrying a lot of risk with it. That being said, i've already made it pretty obvious that U-turn should also be your greatest friend when running Ape on any of your teams.
On top of that by using Celebi you would not only be increasing your main offense by a simple U-turn to any of your team members, seeing as you are running many revenge killers, you would be also enhancing your fighting Resistance seeing as Celebi is a more sturdy wall than Zapdos. (Not Stealth Rock weak being it's biggest asset)

As for the Celebi set:

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP/220 Def/8 Spd/40 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
- U-turn

The Special Attack evs are there so that you always OHKO Scizor.

Last but not least, i don't really find your team weak to Lucario, all of your Pokemon have a way to OHKO it, and should you be locked onto a Pursuit with Scizor, you can always play it around and end up Mach Punching it with Infernape. But that's unlikely.

He WAS luke weak at the time of posting, but Mach Punch Ape has all but solved that. Yeah test Celebi, you do have a bit more trouble switching into MixApe but you kind of did before Zapdos was replaced anyway, and with Mach Punch + Flygon it can't do too much damage. I'll test this team on shoddy and update with any more fixes I believe possible, but for now it seems pretty sweet :)

 

[pokefan0]

He WAS luke weak at the time of posting, but Mach Punch Ape has all but solved that. Yeah test Celebi, you do have a bit more trouble switching into MixApe but you kind of did before Zapdos was replaced anyway, and with Mach Punch + Flygon it can't do too much damage. I'll test this team on shoddy and update with any more fixes I believe possible, but for now it seems pretty sweet :)

Yeah definitely test celebi when you do that as he made quite a nice addition to my team in place of Zapdos and so far with him in there i'm undefeated, especially when I do things right.

And yes, it's fairly sweet :)
More rates!

 

[pokefan0]

bump!