What?! 6 Scarfers, for real?

[Raj]

Hey Smogon, I'd like to introduce to you... my latest team consisting of not just 6 Choiced Pokemon, but 6 Choice Scarfed Pokemon. Rarely do I make teams considered standard by most, and this is no exception. It has had a fairly decent track record, but there are some tweaks that are necessary and that's why I'm sharing the team with you now.

The Team

Azelf @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Modest
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 42 HP, 252 Special Attack, 216 Speed

Moveset:
Stealth Rock
Psychic
Fire Blast
U-Turn

Description: Choice Scarf Azelf really does make a great lead. While it's not a race on turn 1 to see who can get Stealth Rock up faster, it sure helps beat the faster Taunters such as Crobat and Aerodactyl. Psychic makes for a powerful STAB move, but doesn't serve its purpose until later in the game usually. Fire Blast is an option to get rid of all the lead Gross, but also functions to clean up afterwards. U-Turn, as you may see, is the basis of this team, allowing my Scarfed Mons to get in and out of battle quickly while dishing out some damage in between. This is important because I will use U-Turn more often than any other attack.

Porygon Z @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Modest
Ability: Adaptibility
EVs: 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed, 6 Defense

Moveset:
Tri Attack
Hidden Power [Fighting]
Dark Pulse
Thunderbolt​

Porygon Z really is a great Pokemon. Since Z does not have access to U-Turn, he functions mainly as Revenge Killer. The trick to Porygon Z successfully is to think of whatever move is Super Effective... and don't use it. The opponent will most likely switch and you may just get the right hit in. When Rock and Steel Pokemon are at 50% health or below, you can freely use Tri Attack for decimation and clean-up. Dark Pulse has 2 great functions: for one it hits Ghost type Pokemon that like to switch into Z, but also at such a great speed, it becomes handy for catching a Flinch roughly one third of the time. Hidden Power Fighting is awesome for netting kills on Fight-weak Pokemon, namely Tyranitar and Lucario. Thunderbolt helps me out against Water types like DD Gyarados as well as getting awesome neutral coverage.
​

Infernape @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Naughty
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Attack, 112 Speed, 146 Special Attack

Moveset:
Close Combat
Fire Blast
Hidden Powe [Ice]
U-Turn

If I had to come up with a cheesy name for this it'd be the switch master. Like Porygon Z, it's often wise to predict a switch and use a different move than whatever you were thinking or to U-Turn right off the bat. This method will wear down the opponent quickly and makes beating Skarm-Bliss a cake walk, but can also wreak havoc if the opponent is switch eager. Close Combat from max attack hits hard once I've eliminated any Ghost types. Fire Blast doesn't require max Special Attack to get any different OHKOs or 2HKOs so I invested primarily into Attack. HP Ice is handy for Dragons and Gliscor who think mispredict the U-Turn. Silly...

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 6 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed

Moveset:
Earthquake
Outrage
U-Turn
Stone Edge

Flygon has definitely shown itself worthy with the release of Platinum. Resistance to Rock allow it to come in takeing minimal damage from Stealth Rock and get a good hit in before the opponent. You can't keep in Tyranitar or Latias in against Flygon beacsue you never know if it'll U-Turn or OHKO with one of its STAB moves, allowing me to U-Turn and bring in a counter to their switch-in. Stone Edge is filler, but good filler nonetheless. Sometimes Gyarados slips by with a Dragon Dance and you just can't get stuck into Outrage, at which point Stone Edge becomes a good option.

Drifblim @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Rash
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 78 Attack, 184 Speed, 248 Special Attack

Moveset:
Trick
Shadow Ball
Explosion
Hypnosis

This guy is pretty nifty. While not a sweeper persay, it can cripple half a team easily. The given EVs allow it to reach 363 with Scarf to beat the likes of Azelf and Starmie and KO with Shadow Ball. Trick Scarf onto something that doesn't want it and boom- you've crippled them and can make a power play with 480+ Speed now. Hypnoses the switch, Shadow Ball the next incoming Pokemon, and when you feel the need, Explode on their Wall meant to take Shadow Balls. I'm fairly certain that this is created entirely by me and no one has done anything similar yet.

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Serence Grace
EVs: 6 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed

Moveset:
Iron Head
Zen Headbutt
Fire Punch
U-Turn

The last "star" of the show. Jirachi, like Flygon can come in multiple times without fear of Stealth Rock and hax you into an oblivion. We all know what Iron Head is for, you can't pas up 60% Flinch and STAB, period. Fire Punch finishes off Scizor expecting to catch a break from Iron Head, and can finish off Skarmory and company if I don't want to try my luck with Iron Head. Zen Headbutt, almost forgotten with the founding of Iron Head is essential for getting Fighting types, more Flinch, and neutrality against Pokemon such as Gyarados. U-Turn gets me the hell out and causes allows me to bring in an appropriate Pokemon should the opponent switch.

Thank you for having a look at the team and helping out. I appreciate it!​

 

[sasami]

Isn't the Choice Item/U-Turn glitch a problem for this team? I have just two U-Turn/Choice users on my own team and even then it causes me problems.

 

[EspyJoel]

You could use Timid Trick Scarf Rotom-H or Wwith Trick,Shadow Ball, Overheat/Hydro Pump, Thunderbolt

 

[Amphetamines]

Okay, I'm not going to say anything more than this team is destroyed by Stall. Get Trick on Azelf, maybe Rotom-H, etc.

 

[HXCMLG Pogeman Trainer]

Scarf breloom is outsped only by Aero who you can seed bomb as they taunt then kill as they set up rocks. Not the best but it's acceptable. Any other situation against a none scarf lead (and some of them will try to trick a scarf thinking you're a sub puncher) you can spore, prevent the stealth rocks by sporing, and switch to one of your fast u-turners to either go on the offensive or uturn out of their.

Late game the breloom can come in and spore a poke if the lead is knocked out in the process, it's really versatile and if you want to prevent rocks against near all leads aside from scarfed and lum leads it'll do the trick.

I was acknowledging that it wasn't a gimmick despite sounding like one.

Well the reasoning is Drifblim can't sweep, the trick can help, the hypnosis has bad accuracy (and if you use breloom driflblim would be even worse). Really, I think azelf would do a much better job where driflblim is. He hits pretty damn hard and if you wanted you could still get up your rocks that way.

 

[Korski]

I think you should replace Drifblim with this Togekiss:

Togekiss @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Timid
EVs: 68 HP/ 208 SpA/ 232 Spe

Trick
Thunder Wave
Air Slash
Aura Sphere

And here's why:
Timid Starmie T-Bolt/Ice Beam vs. your Drifblim: 299 Atk vs 129 Def & 441 HP (95 Base Power): 316 - 372 (71.66% - 84.35%) = OHKO w/ SR 66.67% of the time

Same Starmie vs. Togekiss: 299 Atk vs 266 Def & 328 HP (95 Base Power): 154 - 182 (46.95% - 55.49%) = never OHKO w/SR

Jolly Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. your Drifblim: 359 Atk vs 124 Def & 411 HP (40 Base Power): 252 - 296 (61.31% - 72.02%) = if Hypnosis misses, you're completely toast

Mamo vs. Togekiss: 359 Atk vs 226 Def & 328 HP (40 Base Power): 138 - 164 (42.07% - 50.00%) = You can stay in and OHKO w/ Aura Sphere, live to fight another day

Basically what I'm saying is if you Trick that Scarf onto something dangerous, like Starmie, who outruns your entire team and can do some major damage with the BoltBeam/Surf combo, or Mamoswine, who threatens over half your team w/ SE attacks, Drifblim is not about to be able to help you without at least a little luck. Togekiss, at least, can stay in to do damage control, either Thunder Waving to make the Scarf useless or Attacking to get the KO. The set I just gave is exactly as fast as your Porygon-z (one point faster than Scarftran), so it will outrun Adamant Lucario after it loses the Scarf, making it a great late-game pokemon if you're in a tight spot. It also out-attacks your Drifblim with 328 SpA vs. Blim's 305 and is bulkier on top of that. Trick is also just as surprising to see on a Togekiss as it is on a Drifblim, so don't worry about the surprise factor. While it can't explode or put pokemon to sleep, it does have natural advantages that it can exploit (I won't even mention paraflinch or Kiss's other haxy goodness), making it a good pokemon to have around. It also gets rid of the extra Ghost and Dark weaknesses on your team, which is nice.