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4th Gen OU - The choice team

Maybe

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Azelf @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
-UTurn
-Zen Headbutt
-Fire Punch
-Explosion

My favorite lead. I made Azelf physical because everyone expects the standard Smogon lead with Taunt and SEs. I love the extra punch it gets from the U-turn and with scarf, it wrecks opposing Azelfs.

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Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 228 SDef / 28 Spd
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
-Thunder Wave
-Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-Roost

The dark horse of my team. No one expects Zapdos to be a special tank that with relative physical bulk. Easily taking below half from an Timid Starmie's Ice Beam. Combined with T-Wave + Roost makes it a beast at Pressure stalling. His base 125 SAtk is enough to do more damage to other standard LO Zapdos'. One of the best offensive defensive tanks I've ever used.

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Starmie @ Choice Specs
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Rapid Spin

The special sweeper of my team. STAB Surf + Specs make it a force to be reckoned with. It's lack of bulk is a little off putting, but it's power makes up for it. Switching into that Surf will do over 50% to pokes like Swampert, Gengar, Scizor, TTar, pretty much everything in the metagame unless it is resistant. Even Breloom gets 44% taken off if there are no bulk investments.

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Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Thunderbolt
-Trick

Ahh, the best ghost pokemon ever. It'll dish out heavy damage do anything that has rapid spin with the exception of Forry, so I usually see if I can predict the trick onto it. This poke will outspeed ANYTHING that uses dragon dance and expects to sweep with it. I am mainly talking about Gyarados. People use taunt on my Skarm and one DD as I switch into this guy and TBolt and that's all she wrote.

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Lucario @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
-Close Combat
-Crunch
-Thunder punch
-Ice punch

MVP. Revenge killer, sweeper, last resort, what can't Lucario do? His AWESOME type of steel/fighting gives it immunity to toxic spikes and minimal SR damage. STAB Close combat will pretty much 2HKO a good majority of the game. Crunch for predictable ghost switch ins. Punches for type coverage of Flygon, Gyarados, Dragonite, etc.. (Also a common poke that Gyarados switches into, then I KO with Gengar.)

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Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen eye
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SDef / 4 HP
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
-Stealth Rocks
-Spikes
-Roost
-Whirlwind

Yup. No attacks. This is just for tanking purposes and once it gets up the maximum level of entry hazards, it is used for status fodders, stalling, etc. Skarmory's type with steel gives it a good type to defend against common moves like shadow ball, but with the already monstrous Def, his SDef side is lacking. Giving it maximum SDef allows it to survive a Tbolt from Gengar and neutral SAtk hits don't do nearly as much to 2HKO. However, his defense is still impressive to take hits from TTar and Metagross and easily roost off the damage.


This team got me 1350+ LP on Pokemon-Online and I love it. I relies on a good sense of predictions and a good knowledge of the metagame. The only weaknesses of this team that I've come across, are Focus sash teams Trick room, and Blissey. I typically save Lucario for a late game sweep so in case there is a Blissey, I can OHKO with CC. Additionally, if able to set up SRs and one or two layers of spikes, it's pretty much GG. The next thing I love about my team, is that it is hardly affected by entry hazards. Stealth rock does the average damage except Lucario and Zapdos but Zapdos can easily tank the next hit and roost off the damage. Spikes isn't an issue at all cept Lucario. The rest of my team is either flying or levitate and if entry hazards do become an issue, Starmie can just Rapid spin them away!

I have also experimented pokes in place of others. For example: Infernape vs Lucario and Raikou vs Zapdos. A lot of these pokes have similar movesets and base stats but I like the type coverage of my team.

Please help me evaluate my team, I feel that it's pretty solid at the moment, but I would like to hear some of your opinions. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment! :D

Thanks!
 
I think your calcs are off. Standard LO Starmie does 46%-54% to your Zapdos, which is more than enough to 2HKO after Stealth Rocks.

Besides that, this team can have serious problems against teams with bulky setup pokemon. Empoleon, DDnite, and Agiligross can all come in on a choiced attack they resist and set up. Even if they can't pull off a sweep, they'll most likely take out one or both of your walls, which paves the way for a different sweeper later on. Zapdos is probably my favorite wall as well, but even he can only take so much punishment.

Substitute causes even more problems for this team. Any opponent can come in after a KO/on a resisted attack, sub up, and then wreak havok with the approriate move. What's worse, after you break their Sub, they know what move you're locked into and can switch accordingly, thus maintaining momentum.

The best solution I can see to these problems is to remove one or two choice items. Honestly, three scarfers is a bit excessive. Subsplit Gengar can handle your Blissey problem nicely, and Agility Lucario can outspeed the whole metagame while still having the freedom to change moves AND has a Life Orb boost. Try one (or both) of them.

The other big problem I see is that your team is insanely Pursuit weak, especially to Scarftar. He can come in for free on any of Gengar's attacks, three of Azelf's, and three of Starmie's; and OHKO whether you flee or fight. Lucario isn't really a solution because no Scarfed T-Tar is stupid enough to stay in. I would get rid of one of your Dark weaknesses, maybe with a Scizor, who can check T-Tar, revenge kill, and scout all in one.

I hope that helped!
 
Yeah, that really did help. I had been having some problems with TTar, but it seems that most of them just carry DD and crunch now. I sometimes get lucky with Azelf using a U-Turn when they bring Ttar in.

I'll try these changes definitely. I hope I can manage to get the agility for Lucario as well. Thanks!

I will try alternating standard LO Starmie and standard Choice banded Scizor.
 
one of those scraftys wrecks this team.payback azelf, payback stamie,payack gengar,payback zapdos, drain punch everything esle.
 
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