The Pixie and the Jackal: an OU Weatherless team

The Team






Introduction:

I started playing competitive Pokemon just after the fifth generation was released. I used to lurk in Smogon from the late fourth generation, but it was only later that I discovered PO and Shoddy. Either way, although I was a pretty incompetent player and teambuilder back then, I really enjoyed playing competitively as well as trying out various teams. Although I primarily play Ubers, I've been playing OU, RU, UU and LC (although in my opinion, Ubers is more enjoyable than all of these, but I digress). Either way, I had been using a Deoxys-D HO team and a Rain team as my two primary OU teams before and during the Suspect Testing. However, after both Deoxys-D and Tornadus-T were banned, I decided not to run Spikes stacking offense / hyper offense or weather-centric teams - instead I decided to build a balanced / offensive weatherless team around Celebi and Lucario. So, after some experimenting, I came up with this team and I've been enjoying playing with this a lot. Without further ado, here's the team in detail:

Team Members

NOTE: Color indicating testing Color indicating going to change Color indicating changed Color indicating previous move / item



Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SDef / 20 Spd
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Recover
- Baton Pass
- Perish Song / Calm Mind

The first team member is my MVP - Celebi. Celebi is an incredible Pokemon in the current metagame. If you look at the S - Tier threats in the OU Viability Rankings, you'll see that Celebi walls 3 out of 4 - Politoed, Landorus (barring U-turn) and Keldeo and can switch in to the others' strongest move (Terrakion's Close Combat). Celebi also walls Thundurus-T and Breloom, both dangerous sweepers in the tier. The EVs are quite standard, although I do tend to run some extra Speed EVs sometimes. Baton Pass is chosen over U-turn to avoid getting Pursuit trapped by Tyranitar, but it doesn't really synergize well with Perish Song. But Perish Song is honestly too great to pass up on, as it allows me to defeat several stat boosters such as Latias, Jirachi and Keldeo. The damage output is sometimes low, but you can't expect a Pokemon to wall half the tier and 2HKO all of them at the same time.



Heatran @ Leftovers / Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute / Dragon Pulse

Everyone who has been playing competitive Pokemon knows that Heatran forms an excellent core with Celebi. I'm using Specially Defensive Celebi; therefore, I chose offensive Heatran. Heatran defeats most Sun teams single handedly, although the ubiquitous Dugtrio in such teams gives it trouble. That is where Substitute comes into play; there's little Dugtrio can do to a Heatran behind a Sub without dying itself. Substitute also helps Heatran abuse its wonderful resistances and avoid annoying status like paralysis and sleep. The moves are self-explanatory - Fire Blast is Heatran's best STAB option, Hidden Power [Ice] hits dragons which resist Fire Blast while Earth Power provides good coverage versus Rock and Water types. The predominance of Drizzle hurts Heatran a lot, but versus weatherless or Sun teams, Heatran truly shines. Timid is chosen over Modest because it outspeeds Adamant Dragonite, Mamoswine and speed ties with other Heatran.



Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 234 HP / 200 Def / 76 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge / Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock

Landorus-T is one of my favorite Pokemon from Black/White 2. When Black/White 2 was released, I used a Rain team which was slightly Terrakion weak, so I decided to use this gem of a Pokemon in that team and realized how good it was. With an excellent typing for being a physical tank and a great ability, Landorus-T can check Terrakion, Conkeldurr, Lucario lacking Ice Punch and Dragon types like Dragonite and Garchomp. Landorus-T's uninvested Attack is 326 and its Earthquake 2HKOs most frail Pokemon. Stone Edge is very unreliable, so I might switch it to Hidden Power [Ice], although I'm not sure what EVs or Nature to run in that case. Landorus-T is possibly the best Stealth Rock setter in the tier, so it is obvious why it is my Stealth Rock setter. U-turn helps me maintain momentum and forms a Volt Turn core with Rotom-W.



Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Ice Punch / Crunch

Lucario is the primary sweeper for this team. When I started building this team, I realized that it needed a Pokemon which could quickly enliminate Pokemon weakened by VoltTurn and hazards and Lucario was my choice for two reasons - its priority and its (4x) resistance to Stealth Rock. Justified means Pursuit locked Scizor and Tyranitar are setup bait for Luke. I particularly like Baton Passing with Celebi against the former, and getting to +3 and sweeping the opponent, sometimes pulling off sweeps even midgame. Close Combat is the obligatory STAB, OHKOing even Skarmory after Stealth Rock, while +2 ExtremeSpeed deals with most of the frailer Pokemon. Ice Punch allows me to beat Gliscor and Landorus-T, although Crunch is an option to beat Jellicent, which unfortunately is a big threat to my team as the only thing which can 2HKO Jellicent (Mamo) gets 2HKOd back, so I might change Ice Punch.



Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Trick / Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Rotom-W forms a nice classic FWG core with Heatran and Celebi and is able to revenge kill Specs Keldeo, +1 DD Gyarados, SD Garchomp, while maintaining momentum with Volt Switch. Trick helps Rotom cripple its usual counters like Celebi and Ferrothorn, although I might run Thunderbolt to defeat Jellicent. Hidden Power [Ice] allows it to defeat unboosted Dragons and the Genies. Hydro Pump is a powerful, though inaccurate STAB, powered up by the extremely common Rain. Unfortunately, Rotom-W is frail, and not very fast or very powerful and is probably the most replaceable member of my team at the moment. I might start using Keldeo (though I promised not to use it for once for this team), as it still gives me a rain check, but that makes me even more Jellicent weak. :(



Mamoswine (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Superpower

My other revenge killer, Mamoswine is absolutely incredible. When my Mamoswine is alive, I can let a Salamence set up to +6 if it wishes as Mamo will kill it no matter how much it boosts. A lot of teams in OU are incredibly Mamo-weak as they utilize sweepers such as the aforementioned Mence and Landorus, which easily die to an Ice Shard. Icicle Crash isn't a move I use that much, but it helps killing Landorus-T and Gliscor which underspeed Mamo. Earthquake is Mamo's strongest STAB, and very few Pokemon without a resistance/immunity can switch in to it. Superpower handles Ferrothorn decently and also takes care of weakened Rotom-W on the switch. In a majority of the matches, Mamoswine serves as my revenge killer, while Rotom just Volt Switches for momentum.


Possible changes:​

Conclusion:

As I've said, I really enjoyed making and using this team. While I think it's not too terrible, I'm certain it can be improved. Thank you to everyone for reading this far and coming here to rate my team. This generation is almost at its end, and the fact that weatherless and even stall teams have become viable shows that the metagame is not as unbalanced as it once was. If you like my team or want to use it, leaving a Luvdisc would make me very happy. Also, I'm sorry for the spelling and grammatical mistakes I made. Thanks to Sharoy for his suggestions. Thanks to all those who comment for the rates!

Threatlist

NOTE: Major threat (can 6-0); Threat (can defeat once counters weakened); Not a very important threat.​