Gen 2 RMT GSC OU (Offence)

[Dre89]

I'm only good at using aggressive teams that can hit hard benefitting heavily off double switches, predicting switch ins etc. I'm new to GSC and pretty bad at it and don't know how to build teams yet, so please help me out here.

Nidoking@Leftovers
Lovely Kiss
Earthquake
Thunder
Ice Beam

Standard nido set. I lead with it for the instant pressure it creates with sleep and the ability to hit a lot of stuff SE. The main thing I don't like about it is that it can't do anything to lax apart from sleep it. This bothers me, because I feel that to be considered a genuine offensive threat you should at least be able to scare a lax that is sleeping in-front of you, and nido can't really do that.

Machamp@Leftovers
Curse
Crosschop
Rock Slide
Hidden Power Bug

Standard offensive pokemon. Hits lax hard but can't really switch into it often.

Gengar@Leftovers
Confuse Ray
Thunder
Ice Punch
Explosion

I go with cray because I already have sleep on lax and nido, and I've had decent success with cray in RBY.

Marowak@ThickClub
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hidden Power Flying

I go with hp flying because I already have hp bug on machamp, and I want to be able to hit heracross whilst still hurting eggy.

Vaporeon@Leftovers
Growth
Surf
Rest
SleepTalk

Wanted the team to have a special threat, and vap is supposedly the premier special threat in the game, particularly if I remove their electric with an explosion or something. Went with stalk for durability.

Snorlax@Leftovers
Lovely Kiss
Curse
Double-Edge
Rest

Because I already have so much offence on this team, I decided to make lax more utility and wall-oriented, because this team struggles to switch into stuff. Considering making it a talker so it can be a dedicated sleep absorber.


This is probably a really bad team, I don't know how to build GSC teams yet. If anyone could help me out that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bedschibaer]

Nidoking in the lead position is great, threatens the electrics and prevents early spikes.
Your lack of a Phazer and no recovery on over half of your team will be your main problem, since your opponent will very often be able to just rest/recover/softboil the damage you do, while you have to rely on leftovers recovery on half of your team. Not to mention that spikes damage will add up heavily, expecially on Marowak.
Phazers are very important in GSC, because they will very often be your only way to beat a curselax that is setting up in your face (other than lelditto).
Running Marowak without any support will get it worn down very quickly. A spinner and probably even paralysis support is helpful to make it work to it's fullest potential.
Mono attack lax really likes Pursuit support, it's not mandatory, but it's really helpful. Ttar for example can Pursuit, can phaze and still packs alot of attacking power.
Oh, and you don't really have many answers to an opposing lax, as you said, Machamp struggles to switch into lax in the first place, same for Nidoking, Curse EQ lax laughs at your Gengar and beats Vap most of the time, and if it gets to set up a few Curses you'll struggle to get rid of it even with Marowak.

 

[Jorgen]

Nido's EQs do more to Lax than you seem to think. They're doing Raikou Thunder levels of damage, which isn't great until you consider that it's 100% accurate and you can toss out a Sleep move anytime you want.

You need a Phazer. Ttar could go somewhere to provide this. Nido/Gengar/Marowak/Machamp are all potential replacement targets, but make sure you have enough Special attackers able to beat Skarm (which means you need FB Ttar if you replace Nido/Gengar). You could also tack Pursuit onto it so that you can clear out Ghosts for Snorlax.

You also need a backup plan against Grounds like opposing Marowak. Vap can't switch in too often and you have no Spikes. Your best bet is to sac a mon to get a good hit on it, but what if it Rests? What if stuff gets paralyzed? As you seem to not want to use Zapdos, you could try Dragonite, who functions similarly as a back-up plan with his real-life Spikes/EQ immunity. Dnite also does a good job of being a mixed threat the way you like and protects you better against opposing Vaps. Same replacement targets here (Wak/Champ/Gar/Nido, in no particular order).

 

[Borat]

it's functional and it'll probably work. depends if your goal is to get better understanding or to just get something out the door.

unless there's a bit more justification/deeper insight as to what and how each pokemon is suppose to function, i'm not convinced there's any more to this team than just a "pick 6 from ou tier" team. that said, there's definitely some nice parts about it, not sure if sheer luck or well thought out.

 

[Dre89]

Thanks for the input guys. I might try tar or nite, not sure who to drop though.

Borat- I basically just picked 4 pokemon that are difficult to switch into due to their ability to hurt stuff without boosting, vaporeon for a special threat, and then snorlax because it's snorlax.

The idea behind it is that it's a very aggressive team that's based more on predictions than calcs. If I can predict correctly, either hitting switch-ins for large damage or double switching a counter in to their switch in, I can maintain enough pressure on them to not let them play their game and break through their defences.

Of course, I'm screwed if I mispredict or let up the pressure because this team can't switch into anything and doesnt deal with spikes and status well.

 

[Crystal_]

You need a Phazer. Ttar could go somewhere to provide this. Nido/Gengar/Marowak/Machamp are all potential replacement targets, (...)

OR you could swap Cray on Gengar for Mean Look. Missy is the main issue after all, especially considering you run mono-lax. You should be playing curselax with aggression anyway. Playing with aggression is how you win with this team. Ttar is locked against cune and vap which is not what you want consdiering that the nature of the team already makes it have trouble against them.

If you feel like the team has a lot of trouble against Marowak/Heracross or want a ground resist, Dragonite gives you a second look against them while keeping offensive pressure. It's bait-Twave really comes in handy often too.

Oh, and I'd run HPump vap.

 

[Borat]

if that's the case, i think vap is the best thing to drop. vap doesn't really punish switches at all.

 

[Mr.E]

If you feel like the team has a lot of trouble against Marowak/Heracross or want a ground resist, Dragonite gives you a second look against them while keeping offensive pressure. It's bait-Twave really comes in handy often too.

or he could just use Zapdos, the greatest mon in the world

 

[Crystal_]

I think the point was not to use Zapdos at all.

Dre made a similar thread in another community saying that he didn't want to use legendaries I don't exactly remember why, so I took for granted that the same would apply to this thread.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Roar Suicune + Spikes is kinda a problem. Electrics are ubiquitous for a reason.

 

[Bedschibaer]

Roar Suicune + Spikes is kinda a problem. Electrics are ubiquitous for a reason.

yea, so much this. The legendary electrics are after Lax the best mons in GSC. If you don't want to use legendaries for some reason, Ampharos and Jolteon come to mind, that could try handle this job. Jolteon for example could do some Growth(passing), Subpassing, etc. And Ampharos lead set is just fun to use and spreads paralysis efficiently. That is support that Marowak for example would appreciate alot.

 

[Borat]

no i think if you're not going to use zapdos/raikou, then electrics no longer become necessary at all. ampharos/jolteon are NOT suitable replacements and do not function the same way at all. exeggutor is closer than zap/kou than ampharos/jolteon is, and exeggutor is not similar to kou/zap at all.

 

[magic9mushroom]

In any case, I think we can all agree that Zapdos is awesome, and it happens to be really awesome for this team because it screws with the Spikes-shuffle attempts which are currently really scary for you.

 

[Jorgen]

exeggutor is closer than zap/kou than ampharos/jolteon is

Only in the sense that Egg can actually counter Vap and the legendary Electric replacements cannot (the former because of Speed, the latter because of frailty). Otherwise Jolt/Amphy do function rather similarly to your typical Zap/Kou (especially Kou) if you run Rest on them.

 

[Borat]

not really as a vap counter, but in the sense that egg is actually good in 90% of instances.

jolteon with a kou set is a sad excuse for a pokemon.

and amphy doesn't have the speed, which is a big part of what makes zap/kou zap/kou.

 

[Jorgen]

Well, right, you play them to their strengths so they aren't outclassed, and even then you're going to use Raikou in most serious matches anyway because come on. But when you don't, Jolteon gets Growth, Amphy gets Thunder Wave. Rest is used as the 4th move along with their "signature" move to keep you alive to tank more Thunders in Raikou-esque fashion, which is probably a bigger part of Raikou's role than its Speed.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Ampharos is sad because Zapdos also gets Thunder Wave.

 

[Dre89]

I thought Ampharos' signature move would be dynamic punch.

I was thinking of thunder dynamic punch fire/ice punch rest.

 

[Mr.E]

Did you know: Ampharos has identical stats to Raikou except for Speed. And Jolteon is pretty good okay.

 

[Jorgen]

Well technically Raikou has +10 Base Attack and +10 Base SpDef compared to Amphy. But yeah, it's mostly just Speed and movepool that divides the two in a meaningful way.

 

[Bedschibaer]

Of course Amphy/Jolteon are different from Zap/Kou, and essentially worse, and if anyone doesn't want to use Zapdos, i'll recommend Raikou, and vice versa of course. But the question was to not use legendaries, and apart from the fact that those mons have the same typing, strong special attacks (usually even the same hidden power), both fill quite useful roles, roles that would be helpful for this team.
They are not as good, but when you say that you don't want to use legendaries (which i don't understand in the first place, but okay) basically means "i want to use pokemon that are inferior alternatives to legendaries". At least in this case.
I was just listing 2 mons that could potentially fill the place of zap/kou, i could have named any other phazer/special tank/special attacker, but i chose those 2 because of similar typing and because they both provide support that Marowak would really appreciate on this team (paralysis spreading/sub agility passing). Oh, and using Jolteon as the electric on a team with Marowak is not really something new, Jolt/Wak is one of the more common offensive strategies in GSC.
And saying Ampharos is not similar to them because of speed, but saying Exeggutor is, with the exact same speed stat, is kinda out of place (especially with the only reasoning being "lel they suck").

 

[magic9mushroom]

(usually even the same hidden power)

Raikou has more use for HP Water than Zapdos, since even with HP Ice Zapdos stands a decent chance against Steelix whereas Raikou's 2HKOed.

 

[Borat]

i am an asshole and i like to disagree with people. how else would you ever find anything new and exciting?

in any case, i think i'm pretty familiar with "joltwak" :)

 

[Royal Flush]

Hmm I don't really see a good synergy in your team. Opposite Marowak with proper support looks scary; Missy can grab a kill everytime Lax gets in; a lot of matches might end in vap/curselax wars.
This prediction-based thingy doesn't work at all in my honest opinion - mainly because, well, it's something you can't control 100% - that's why stuff like eggy/zapdos are that good: you can risk some big plays here and there and at the same time they can check dangerous stuff.
I'm too sleepy to think about detailed fixes right now, but I'd start removing wak, adding a phazer and running FBLax I guess.

 

[magic9mushroom]

This prediction-based thingy doesn't work at all in my honest opinion

Eh, it works with some things, most notably Drummers. But yeah, GSC ain't RBY, shit doesn't die to mixsweepers in a hurry. Over it, get.