You Shall Not Pass!...please?

[Jeffbombb]

Intro:Hi, I've been lurking on Smogon for a little bit, and finally decided to put together a competitive team and actually compete. This is my first RMT, and the team itself hasn't done that bad, considering it's my first real team. It peaked at 1271 before certain threats began bogging me down. This team is based around Pokemon with very high offensive capabilities, with the weakest base SpAtk/Atk stats belonging to Genesect. Alright, so now to the team...

Team Building Process:

Dragonite has been my favorite poke since Gen 1, and finally in Gen 5 it became a real beast. Multiscale, bla bla everyone knows about it. Almost always gives Dragonite a turn to D-Dance, and then wreck havoc. Keldeo is a great poke as well. Solid stats let it boost up with a calm mind, and sometimes it even sweeps whole teams after I switch into it from Genesect.

Wanted to trap other annoying steels, and Magnezone seemed like a good idea. It forms a very nice, solid core with Keldeo and Dragonite, taking outrages like a champ. But in some matches it's completely useless, so if there's another good steel monster out there, Magnezone will be gone in a flash.

Ahh, yes. The infamous Genesect, annoying the hell out of people and being a fantastic revenge killer. This guy is the glue that holds my team together; it has saved me many times. Its U-turn also serves well in junction with Magnezone's volt switch.

So now I had two steels, leading to the thought 'What the heck, I'll throw another dragon onto my team!' thus leading to latios's spot. Latios is fabulous at it's job. Every team needs a counter specially for this pokemon, or they will be swept by it without a doubt. Draco meteor is used for emergency purposes only, and because of that it's almost never used. But when it is used, it always takes out huge chunks of almost any pokemon.

Last but not least is the muscly monster Terrakion. Nothing can easily take the appropriate choice-banded move from him, so the only problem is when people predict and come in with a counter. He's not always used though, and is a dead weight in maybe 30% of my battles.



A Closer Look:

Genesect @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Download
EVs: 112 Atk / 176 SAtk / 220 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Explosion
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- U-turn

Currently the most popular pokemon in DreamWorld OU, and for good reason. This mon is definitely the team player of every match. I always lead with him, letting him heavily dent or even KO certain mons. But most importantly his U-turn lets me break focus sashes and multiscale on Dragonite. He's also able to OHKO sometimes with Ice beam or Thunderbolt, which most people don't think of for some reason. Explosion has been useful for a few matches, but I always have to think hard before using it. I'm thinking about replacing that move with something else. Two of the main problems Genesect faces is the uncommon FirePunch on Deoxys-S and Choice Scarf Mences. If those are on the other team, they will without a doubt OHKO Genesect in the first few turns.

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 148 HP / 252 SAtk / 108 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Magnezone causes a lot of trouble for the other teams, half of the time. Choice specs Magnezone has tremendous power, and takes huge chunks out of anything without decent special defense. Volt turn works really well sometimes, if I'm fast enough to use it, and thunderbolt nets me many OHKO's on unwary water pokemon. Flash cannon is there as coverage, and hidden power fire wrecks steels.



Keldeo @ Leftovers
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Calm Mind
Keldeo is a blessing to the team. It can take on Blaziken, Excadrill, and other huge threats. Its colossal special attack and above average speed make it a perfect sweeper, and the unexpected HP Ice allows it to OHKO many dragons without a calm mind. Secret Sword is a good STAB move and is used a lot when I don't want to risk a miss from Hydro pump. Calm mind is self explanatory, I boost, they fear.



Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Quick Attack
Terrakion is the muscle of the team. Choice band slapped on 357 attack is no joking matter, and the STAB moves are amazing. Not many mons can take a choice banded close combat from Terrakion, but a few can outspeed and OHKO. Quick attack is on there to revenge kill, but being stuck with quick attack doesn't help very much. I'm thinking about changing to Choice Scarf, but the drop in power would be very noticeable I imagine.



Fluffy (Dragonite) (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Fire Punch
Dragonite is a real champ. He takes earthquakes like they're nothing. :D Not just earthquakes though. At full health, he can pretty much take anything. Extreme speed lets him take out fast, weak sweepers and outrage tears holes in teams. Dragon dance lets him outspeed many mons and fire punch lets me take care of steels. Lum berry is a lifesaver as well, letting me continue after getting toxic'd or burned.



Latios (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psyshock
Latios saves my sorry butt in many matches. DRACO METEOR!!!!! Threat eliminated! -Yes- Hidden power fire does quite a lot of damage coming off of his massive special attack, and on a steel it's almost guaranteed to KO. Psyshock is attacks the opponent's defense instead of SpDefense, but I still find myself walled by Chanseys and Blisseys. But it does work on other pokemon at times, so it will stay. Surf is a great move, can't think of a reason why I would replace it.

Conclusion:

This team had done pretty well, but I'm sure it can do much better. I'm not sure what moves or mons should be changed; I don't have very much experience. I generally have problems with anything that can outspeed me. Good examples are Agiligross, Gengars, and ScarfChomps. Thanks for reading.

[Kidogo]

Hey Jeff,

Great team. I like the premise of putting the opponent under a lot of pressure by having a bunch of heavy hitters. I have a couple of minor notes, as well as some larger ones.

I would suggest replacing explosion with flamethrower on genesect and changing the EVs to 4 Atk 252 Spa 252 Spe naive. Explosion really got nerfed in 5th gen, and on something like genesect it really isn't worth it. Flamethrower gets great coverage and is a great move in general.

I might consider changing latios's set a bit--expert belt is fine, but to capitalize on Latios's destructive capabilities I might suggest specs. If so, definitely keep draco meteor and psyshock. Surf is good too. I might consider a replacement for hp [fire], especially as it forces you to lower your speed IV and your team doesn't seem to have any trouble with steel types. If so, trick or thunderbolt could be a good option. If you don't want specs, you could try a LO set with recover, which I've found really effective. If so, I would suggest switching psychock to psychic as it has better utility in general--psyshock is really only good for getting past blissey and chansey, but you need specs for that.

Okay, a couple more general notes:
You don't have stealth rock anywhere. On a team this offensively inclined, stealth rock will help you get a ton of OHKOs and 2HKOs--definitely put it in. Also, while this team has great offensive pressure, you don't really have any defensive pokes at all. The synergy of your team is actually quite good, but because none of them have recovery they will be worn down very quickly. I would suggest:
Get rid of magnezone/dragonite/latios and replace it with skarmory/nattorei/bronzong/forretress. First of all, as you said, magnezone is often dead weight. Furthermore, you really don't need a steel-trapper--you have two fighting types and three pokes that carry fire moves. While dragonite and latios are both great pokes, they have somewhat redundant typing, and its not clear what roles they play exactly. Having two dragons is by no means a bad thing, but perhaps make it clear what the purpose of each is--for example, making latios specs to punch holes and having DD dragonite as a primary sweeper along with keldeo. If you choose to keep dragonite, I would strongly suggest forretress as the magnezone replacement, as spinning is almost required for dragonite to work to its full potential. Another option would be to go with one of the other defensive pokes listed, and then have a rpid spinner somewhere else on the team--offensive rapid spin starmie would fit in well with your team's idea I think. In that case it could replace latios or genesect, although sacrificing either of these isn't the best. Don't do anything you don't want to though.

Hope these comments helped!

[Sazandoringlps]

Great team one thing i do see is the minute you lose Keldeo Dnite and Latios you'll get smashed by Techniloom no matter which one mostly the Swords Dance and CB because it OHKO's all of them and with a good player in the DW metagame that can happen real quit.Alsothe team gets damaged by Sub SD Garchomp in the Sand because Sand veil and sub+swords dance to set up then Outrage kill everything but terrakion and that gets killed by Earthquake.In the Rain Feraligatr is a threat because after DD your team gets smashed by it and the only thing that can stop it is Genesect and like i said before a good plyer will try there best to get the genesect out of the way.Seeing you like to see everything die try ST Chandelure seeing that it takes mach punch but if its a good breloom it will have Stone edge so watch for that,Takes ibn Garchomp when its not behind a sub and takes care of Feraligatr.
Set:
Chandelure @ Leftovers/Air Balloon
Trait: Shadow tag
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Subtitute
- Energy ball
- Shadow ball
- Overheat/Flamethrower

Hope it helped try it out over magnezone

[KyraGrace]

This team is pretty great, I tested it out and got to around 1287 before gettig destroyed by certain threats. I'll work on finding a way around their weakness.