Cold Steel (a mildly successful mono steel team with an unoriginal name))

[Coldsteel]

Well this is the first time I’ve posted a team on here. But I’ve been tweaking my mono steel team for a while and i might as well see what people think of it. It does pretty well, i've ammassed a good amount of wins with it. But other times it just gets destroyed! I cringe everytime i see infernape. Holy crap! even with Skarmory and Jirachi and Heatran to counter him they might as well be pulling out a mewtwo on me. anyways without further ado..

Cold Steel

Lucario @ Focus Sash
Inner Focus
EVS: 252 ATK 252 SPE 4 DEF
Adamant Nature
- Bulk UP
- Bullet Punch
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
I use bulk up to undo the damage done by Close Combat as much as I can as well as boost his attack I could easily go with swords dance but meh. Can’t really go wrong with ice punch on a steel team with the weakness to ground and also it also helps with zapdos who can be a pain in the ass for my team. Bullet Punch is nice because certain sucide leads like to start off with taunt like for ex Areodayctle who is weak to BP. Usually I can keep him from setting up Stealth Rock all together if he decides to start off with taunt.

Scissor @ Life Orb
Technician
EVS: 252 ATK 252 SPE 4 DEF
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Night Slash
- Swords Dance
- Roost
I think having both Lucario and Scizzor might be a little excessive. I’ve been thinking of replacing one of them with Fortress. (Probably Lucario) but i need to figure out how to use him first and how he'll work with skarmory. I switch in on something He resists and get a free swords dance. I chose night slash over X-Scizzor because I’ve was having MAJOR issues with Rotom. Roost offsets the effect of Life Orb and with his High Def keeps him sweeping nice and long. Until someone pulls out flame thrower. Then I switch to..

Hetran @ Sucha Berry
Flash Fire
EVS: 252 SpATK 252 SPD 252 DEF 6
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Flame Thrower
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power (grass)
Probably the back bone of my team since it absorbs fire damage and can kill the what is hopefully the teams only fire attacker with earth power.( Ironically this makes him my best Hetran counter lol) I recently change the HP from Electric to Grass in case I run across any Swamperts. My other Fire counter is a lot more fun.

Magnezone @ Occa Berry (:D)
Magnet Pull
EVS: 252 SpATK 252 SpDf 4 DEF
Calm Nature
- Thunder Bolt
- Flash Cannon
- Magnet Rise
- Mirror Coat.
Magnezone was must because I was having issues killing Skarmory. I know I have heatrann but people are usually pretty good at protecting their Skarmory. Anyways this is fun because it works almost all the time any they never see it coming. Usually when Hetran Dies I’ll take out magnezone. Using the Occa Berry and a maxed out SpDf Stat I absorb the hit and use mirror coat to do a OHKO. Taking care of my fire problem for good.OMG so much fun! Not as much fun when they use a physical fire attack :(. Flash cannon is just a nice neutral stab move. I can’t think of anything else to put there. Magnet Rise.. Idk I have magnet rise on my Jolteon and it works pretty well for him but it’s not really the same when you’re as slow as Magnezone. I usually do it first turn when I expect them to switch to something with earthquake. Or if I can’t set up magnet Rise ill switch to…

(what i might do is replace either magnet rise or flash cannon with HP fire so i can trap and kill any steel type i want :D. idk. what do you think about that?)

Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Keen Eye
EVS: 6 ATK 252 HP 252DEF
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Essential part of my team for his ability to switch in on EQ and set up spikes. Spikes and whirl wind is pretty much my go to strategy when I can’t figure out how to deal with a certain Pokémon. As much as Infernape Inferapes my team it would be a lot worse without Skarmory stacking spikes and having brave bird handy. Roost is there so I can be a Dbag and constantly heal. I go with shed shell to escape magnezone.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
EVS: 106 Spd 152 SpAtk 252 SPdef
Calm Nature
- Calmind
- Phychic
- Thunderbolt
- Wish
Jirachi is great because I can switch him in on thunderbolt to protect Skarmory. And absorb pretty much any other SpAtk besides a fire one. I kinda have this policy of not putting anyone on my Shoddy team I can’t realistically get in my DS game (since the whole point is to test out your team before wasting hours building it on the DS) so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I got him at GameStop when I picked up SS. He makes a great special sweeper when I calm mind stall long enough. Wish is fun because it you can not only heal yourself but others. Thunderbolt is fun because of Serene Grace. Don’t suggest flinch hax its kinda lame :P. But yea I basically Just Calmind and sweep as much as possible. This guy has helped me whith a lot of come backs. Sometimes I’ll be down to my last 2 pokes and ill do a clean sweep for the win lol.

 

[Server_Crash]

I like the mono-steel concept. You say that the overlap between scizor and lucario is bad, which it is. DON"T SWITCH IN FORRETRESS! That will ruin the offensiveness of the rest of your team, and make your team terrible. You should give Scizor it's broken choice band set. u-turn/bullet punch/brick break/ night slash if you want it. Flash is more often than not useless. On heatran, switch it to explosion and change heatran's nature to +speed/-spD or +SpA if you prefer. On magnezone, flash cannon can be replaced with HP fire or substitute. Magnet Rise + Substitute work better on a bulkier lefties set, so I suggest HP fire for dealing with other steels. I do like the gimmicky nature or the set and you say it's working, so that's always a good sign for an unusual set. I would say that Skarmory should run lefties, because Magnezone will probably have shown itself against one of your 5 other steels, so you can plan around it. If you play item clause, a life orb now works on Jirachi for a more offensive set or a choice-trick set can usually be effective with jirachi. My thoughts, your team.

 

[sithsniper17]

Flygon (ScarfGon in particular) can give this team some issues once Lucario falls. Also, MixPert can really cause havoc with Earthquake and Surf and bulky variants can easily weather most attacks apart from Heatran's HP...but most recent Heatran sets (including my own) carry HP Grass anyway, so Swampert isn't likely to stay in in the first place.
As for Magnezone, keep Magnet Rise and replace Flash Cannon with HP Fire. The only real use for Magnet Pull in OU is for Skarmory, who can be OHKOed with STAB Thunderbolt (and if not, Magnezone walls most Skarm sets anyway). HP Fire is useful for Magnezone vs Magnezone situations, as well as dealing with Bronzong---unless it has Heatproof, in which case Thunderbolt will work better---or Foretress, who will get destroyed by HP Fire.

Otherwise, it works pretty well as a monotype team. And be glad that Garchomp is stuck in Ubers :D

 

[Coldsteel]

yea flygon is a pain in the ass. especially now that i have gotten rid of lucario and his ice punch. I think i might need to rock icebeam on Jirachi now or slide in a hp ice somewhere in there. I switched trick+iron ball metagross for my crappy lucario. I might throw in an electivire with ice puch as a wild card. i know it makes the steel theme pointless but it would solve pretty much all my problems. if not that then ill just give icepunch to metagross.

 

[xbabyninja]

extreme speed over Bullet punch it does more

 

[Slurray]

I think Empoleon could function well over Magnezone. Empoleon can take water attacks directed at Heatran and threaten ground types like Flygon. I like the look of the lead set for your team, especially since it's not a commonly seen lead.

Empoleon @ Focus Sash
Modest
172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
-Hydro Pump
-Aqua Jet
-Stealth Rock
-Grass Knot/Ice Beam

Hydro Pump + Aqua Jet takes care of suicide leads. Hydro Pump can deal heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it, especially when in Torrent range. Focus Sash allows Empoleon to set up Stealth Rock against powerful Earthquakes, Close Combat, and Thunderbolts.

 

[ginganinja]

As others have pointed out this team does have issues with Ground and fire attacks. Stuff like Scarf Heatran can threaten to KO your entire team. Flygon can unleash Earthquakes and once Skarm is down it could be GG. Infernape can outspeed and KO your entire team, you best chance is Bullet Punchs from Scizor and Lucario to bring it down. Thus there well be a few changes I might like to suggest.

Lucario: Firstly I hate your Lucario set. Its defences are too average for Bulk Up to be effective and it is just not really doing anything. To fix this I suggest running the standard SD Lucario. Extremespeed lets you check Infernape better and its just a general better sweeper.

Skarmory: Its fine, leave it as is

Scizor: Scizor is a decent pokemon but I feel that Lucario is outclassing it that the moment. You need SR and a lead so I suggest running a Lum Berry Metagross (in the lead spot) which matchs up nicely against most leads.

Magnezone: Yeah...I just don't see what its doing. Personally I feel that Magnezone was the pokemon you used if you ran stuff like T-tar and Gengar and needed a Scizor check. I don't think that you need a scizor check and thus I suggest a Agility SubPetaya Empoleon set would work better over Magnezone. You get a great late game sweeper and you can also get a decent switch in to Fire attacks which you lack.

Heatran: Flash Cannon is very poor on Heatran. Personally I would run a HeaTRAP set which lets you lure in and beat stuff like Swampet and Flygon. Yeah I know that Magma Storm has gay accuracy but hopefully that set should help you eliminate threats to your team.

Jirachi: While the set you are using is very good I feel that your team just needs a revenge killer. Stuff like DD Gyarados and Dragonite you struggle with and I think that Scarfing Jirachi will let you deal with these threats better.

Have a Nice Day!

 

[ShinyAzelf]

Beware of Scarf Heatran. One misprediction means your Heatran goes down to a Earth Power, and to make it worse, it can come back in later and OHKO everything with Fire Blast. Its a solid team, but I would suggest you to play carefully with Heatran.

I suggest Brick Break or Bug Bite over Night Slash, one because Night Slash only hits Rotom-a, and most Rotom-a already threaten you with Will-o-Wisp or Overheat if its Rotom-h, so you would be switching to Heatran anyways. Brick Break allows you to hit opposing Steel types, which helps when sweeping, considering Steel is a common type. Bug Bite can provide a good STAB move that is boosted by Technican, and is generally better than Night Slash in my opinion.

One more thing, I'd suggest Counter > Bulk Up on Lucario, because many leads have Taunt, and Counter helps you with things like Hippowdon, and physical attackers. If that change is made, you should use a Lonely nature with 0 Defense IVs to make sure you take a ton of damage from every physical hit.

Good luck!

 

[Coldsteel]

so the consensus seems to be Empoleon for Magnezone. I am going to miss being able to kill the annoying steel types that wall my team like bronzong and skarmory but we'll se how it works. i've taken alot of your suggestions into account and ill be posting an updated team once i make the adjustments and do the proper testing.

 

[Slurray]

Empoleon should still be able to deal heavy neutral damage to Skarmory (and other steel types, since they tend be DEF oriented.)