Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(ite)

[2sly4u]

At A Glance

Hey guys, this is a team I’ve been using lately. I tried to build it around a Sceptile sweep, but the focus has changed over to Dragonite. It’s done well, but I think it can do better. I’ll get right into my team building process.

Team Building Process

I knew right away that I wanted to try Sceptile in OU, so I had my first team member.

I figured that in OU, Scizor would cause Sceptile serious problems. Magnezone can reliably take Scizor out of the match, so he was a natural choice.

I was trying to find a pokemon with good defensive synergy with these two to form my Core. Dragonite resists Fire, Fighting, and Bug (Plus is immune to Ground), so he rounded out my core three.

Next, I wanted a good wall breaker. I’ve always wanted to try Mixed Metagross, so onto the team he went.

I noticed I had three fire Weaknesses (though Sceptile outspeeds all non-scarfed fires anyways), so I needed a resist. Swampert can set up Rocks, and his only weakness is resisteb by everybody else on the team. A natural choice.

I still wanted another fire resist, but preferably not weak to ground since that would give me three. Snorlax fit those criteria, so I gave him a shot.

Finally, after a bit of reworking thanks to my fellow Smogonites, the new and improved version looks like this!

The idea behind this team is to take out all the Bulky waters and steels, allowing Dragonite to sweep. If Dragonite goes down somehow, then Sceptile is my back up sweeper if he’s alive. I’ve had some success with this team, winning probably about 75% of all my matches. However, I’m looking for a few improvements to push this team from good to elite. Without further ado, I present my team!

In-Depth Look

Starmie@Life Orb
Timid Nature, 4 Def, 252 Sp.A, 252 Spe
Rapid Spin
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Surf

Starmie replaces Swampert as my lead. It does a great job at removing hazards, and puts the opponent on the defensive right away. Surf is for STAB, while Ice Beam and Thunderbolt form BoltBeam coverage. Rapid Spin gets rid of Stealth Rocks, making Dragonite's job much easier later on. Big thanks to BKC.

Swampert@Leftovers
Relaxed nature, 348 HP, 216 Def, 44 SpD
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Ice Beam
Roar
Swampert was my lead, but he still does a solid job of getting Stealth Rocks down. His Fire and Electric resists are vital to my team, and every other pokemon barring Starmie resists his one weakness, Grass. Earthquake is for STAB, while Ice Beam nails Gliscor and the dragons. I’m running Roar in the final spot to phaze out sweepers and scout switch-ins.

Magnezone@Choice Scarf
Naive Nature, 4 Att, 252 SpA, 252 SpeSpe
Thunderbolt
HP Ground
Flash Cannon
Explosion
Magnezone is the first key to facilitating Dragonite’s sweep. He does a great job at removing steels, especially Scizor and Jirachi without Fire Punch. With the steels gone, Dragonite can decimate the opponent much easier. Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon are STAB. Normally I'd run HP Fire, but the rest of my team handles Scizor and Forretress well. HP ground lets me revenge non-scarf Heatran. Explosion lets me go out with a bang. Thanks to Lazyboy.

Scizor@Choice Band
Adamant nature, 244 HP, 252 Att, 12 Spe
Bullet Punch
U-Turn
SuperPower
Pursuit
Scizor is my new steel lure, replacing Metagross. Scizor does a good job of luring in Heatran, Skarmory, and opposing Magnezone, allowing me to U-Turn out and trap them with Magnezone. Bullet Punch is for STAB and priority, something my team lacked until now. SuperPower hits enemy Steels hard, and Pursuit lets me trap Psychics and Ghosts, especially those who resist Bullet Punch (*cough*, Rotom-A, *cough*). He also can pick off weakened Dragonites, who earlier gave me big problems. A big thanks to Bubbly.

Sceptile@Life Orb
Hasty Nature, 28 Att, 248 SpA, 232 Spe
Leaf Storm
Earthquake
HP Fire
Dragon Pulse

After the opposing Steels are weakened or dead, Sceptile comes in to work his magic. His blazing 120 Base Speed and given EVs are enough to outpace Max Speed Starmie. Sceptile acts as my main Bulky Water remover. Leaf Storm is STAB and destroys anything that doesn’t resist it, while Earthquake handles Blissey, Heatran and other Fires trying to stop me. HP Fire is (again) to stop Scizor, Forry, and opposing Grasses. Dragon Pulse has great neutral coverage (especially if Magnezone did his job), and can sometimes OHKO standard Dragonite after SR damage. Sceptile is now my best answer for BulkyDos. I can outspeed and OHKO, even after a Dragon Dance, with the slightly tweaked EVs. Although it results in his death, Sceptile can force Kingdra to Outrage, allowing Magnezone to come in and kill it. Normally Sceptile won’t sweep, but weakens the opponent enough for…

Dragonite@Leftovers
Careful Nature, 252 HP, 216 Sp.D, 40 Spe
Dragon Claw
Dragon Dance
Heal Bell
Roost
Dragonite is the star of the show. With the steel-types gone thanks to the rest of the team, Dragonite can forgo coverage moves for support moves to aid his sweep. Dragon Claw is STAB, and Dragon Dance boosts his attack and speed. Roost allows me to heal and grab a few extra boosts, but the key to his success is Heal Bell. With this move, I can set up on pokemon who normally threaten me, such as Will-O-Wisp Rotom, Thunder Wave Jirachi, and the many users of Toxic. I try to keep him hidden until the end, but I’ll Heal Bell for the rest of the team if necessary. Usually, about 65% of my wins are from a Dragonite sweep.

 

[Porii Sames]

Aight.

Personally, I think you have enough Pert coverage on your team to remove Grass Knot from Metagross. Add on Explosion; a move all Metagross (save AgiliGross) should have.

Another thing on Lax: Remove Ice Punch for SelfDestruct also helps you there.

 

[Lazyboy]

Very solid team here, and I can attest to the effectiveness of your SceptileZoneDnite core. Few quick changes that i think could help, for one the change you mentioned by giving swampert rest, this would greatly help his longevity so he can wall multiple threats and with very few hazards on this team roar may not be the best choice (although it would provide you scouting for steels you need to remove).

Secondly, this team is actually quite weak to SD luke. It can set up on lax locked into pursuit (which is a popular tactic for luke sweeping teams) and proceed to decimate the team. The only poke that has a chance of surviving is dragonite, but any residual damage beyond the first turn of SR will lead to a +2 adamant crunch KOing it. This can be somewhat alleviated by switching to choice scarf magnezone, which can either switch in on SD or after a KO and revenge it with thunderbolt. I would also recommend switching to HP ice on Zone, this allows it to switch into scarf flygons outrage and revenge it, leaving Dragonite free to sweep.

Finally, whilst the surprise factor of metagross probably nets a few KO's, it seems like you're using it as an inferior version of heatan. Any version of heatran running HP grass as its coverage move seems to do everything that metagross is doing, namely luring in swampert as well as stopping Skarm/Forretress/Scizor from setting up (however it won't lure these pokes in).

Apart from that the team looks pretty really solid, hope the ideas help and good luck with the team.

 

[Porii Sames]

^You forget that CC hits harder than Crunch when resisted.

yeah

 

[Lazyboy]

My Bad, so yeah that means without the zone change you'll get straight up swept.

Speaking of damage calcs, a ran a few with the mixed metagross set you're using, and with the advent of specially defensive Skarmory, metagross can no longer effectively break it, meaning that a specially defensive skarm w/ shed shell, whilst rare, would be able to escape from zone and set up on every poke apart from sceptile (although if it switches into Leaf Storm, HP fire will be a 3hko at -2). This is another reason i'd strongly recommend heatran in place of metagross.

 

[2sly4u]

Thanks a ton for the rates!
@Porii Sames: I'll test Selfdestruct over Ice Punch. For Metagross, Grass Knot is more for Bulky Waters in general on Meta, and it's his only move that hits all of them hard. I should add this to the description, but besides being a decent Wallbreaker, Metagross does a good job of luring and weakening Bulky Waters, allowing Dragonite to sweep easier in the late game.

@Lazyboy: Scarfzone has been stellar so far, thanks for the suggestion! I'm open to changing Metagross, but I'd rather use something that can go mixed as opposed to Heatran. I'll try Heatran in the meantime, but do you know of a good mixed attacker to replace him?

EDIT: Selfdestruct is illegal with Pursuit :(

 

[BKC]

DD Pokemon such as Tyranitar and opposing Dragonite are really the bane of this team, seeing as your revenge killer, Magnezone, fails to outrun them after a boost. Swampert can tank them if he's at high health, but seeing as you're exposing him to damage right off the bat by using him in the lead slot, he most likely won't be around late-game, at least not in shape to check the aforementioned threats. Swampert isn't exactly a reliable lead in today's metagame, either.

My suggestion is to remove Snorlax from the team, seeing as it's the least useful member (you said yourself it wasn't really being used for any reason in particular), and use Swampert in his place - same set, just in a different spot so he'll be able to check those threats. Since you now need a lead, I suggest Life Orb Starmie. It is incredibly efficient at putting the opponent on the defensive right at the start of a match, removes SR to make Dragonite even harder to kill, and helps with your slight stall weakness.

Starmie @ Life Orb | Timid | Natural Cure | EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hydro Pump | Ice Beam | Thunderbolt | Rapid Spin

With this change I think your team looks very solid, props for using Sceptile. Good work.

 

[Lazyboy]

If you want a decent physical attacker, you could just go with infernape, specifically the specially based mixed attacker set

Infernape @ Life Orb
Nature: Naive
Ability: Blaze
64 Atk/ 252 Sp.atk/ 192 Speed
-Close Combat
-Fire Blast
-Grass Knot
-HP Ice

This set allows you to lure in bulky waters and still act as a mixed wallbreaker, as well KO opposing Dragonites that think they can wall you, taking some of the pressure off of swampert.

Another possible idea in place of metagross could be Jirachi. Whilst it in't technically a mixed wallbreaker, it can still do a good job of luring in bulky waters, Skarm and Forretress. It also has the added benefit of providing wish support for both Dragonite so it can switch into stealth rocks more easily and to swampert so that he can have some form of recovery and wall a multitude of threats, if you chose not to use rest on Swampert combined with Dragonites Heal Bell.

 

[bubbly]

Hey 2sly4u, like the other guys have said its really nice to see some originality in the RMT section. First of all, if I remember correctly Snorlax can't legally use Pursuit and Selfdestruct together (which kinda sucks).

I'd like to keep the Sceptile / Magnezone / Dragonite core if possible. A nice format for a team is to start with 2 sweepers (1 fast immediately offensive one to clean up offense teams and something anti-stall), then add one pokemon which somehow helps facilitate a sweep for both of those. The rest of the team is made up of a mostly defensive core, which are the ones which could use some optimising in this team.

In terms of major threats, offensive DD Gyarados / Dragonite / Kingdra, as well as Breloom, Machamp, kinda Agility Metagross, and specially defensive Jirachi or CM Jirachi (which can beat Magnezone 1v1 from full health and walls everything else too).

Okay, so, solutions. The first and biggest is to use a Scarf Rotom-W over your Snorlax. I like the bulky EV spread with 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 Spe, which still outpaces max speed +1 Gyarados iirc. This works well with Magnezone as well, since between Trick, Explosion and their strong attacks they can weaken their counters up nicely.

Second, I would suggest using a Choice Band Scizor over Metagross. It covers the remaining threats much better than Gross and to me it gets basically the same anti-steel capacity as Meta because on pretty much all Scizor's most common steel switchins (Heatran, Skarmory, Forry) you can U-turn straight to Magnezone and take them out cleanly (and as someone said absolutely no one uses physically defensive Skarmory any more meaning Meta isn't too reliable at HP Firing it).

Just in case you're tired like me :), the team would look like:

-Swampy
-Rotom-A (bulky Choice Scarf)
-Scizor (Choice Band)
-Magnezone (Choice Scarf)
-Dragonite
-Sceptile

Lots of Choice items but that's good. Hope I've helped, good luck with the team :)

 

[2sly4u]

Thanks a ton for the rates guys, the team is winning a lot more now.

@Bubbly and BKC: I combined both of your ideas and took one pokemon from each of you. LO Starmie does a great job at keeping on the pressure, while CB Scizor has lured in, U-Turned, and trapped more steels than I can count. I tweaked Sceptile's EVs so she can handle BulkyDos as well. Kindgra is still a small problem, but I haven't lost to one yet. Again, thanks so much!