The team focused around my favourite Pokemon

My favourite Pokemon by far is Charizard. So, i decided to make a team around him. For Charizard to sweep teams, a few thing are neccessary. First is to definetly get rid of SR, then to take out the bulky waters. Setting up Dual Screens is a good idea too. Each Pokemon on my team has a specific role. Here it is at a glance:




Starmie
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
EVs:6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
-Rapid Spin
-Ice Beam
-Hydro Pump
-Thunderbolt

Starmie as an anti-lead works great for this team (thanks Dorigen) and beats a LOT of the common ones. They can by all means set up SR, only for me to spin it away immediately, or preferably later in the game, because this starmie acts as a great special sweeper in its own right. Has universal coverage, htting all Pokemon in OU. So far Hydro Pump hasn't missed, and I find the extra oomph to hit harder better than Surf. Ice Beam kills the dragons, Tbolt the Gyarados, and STAB Hydro Pump dents everything that doens't really resist it, apart from Blissey and other special walls.


Gliscor
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP, 40 Def, 216 Spe
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Stealth Rock
-Roost
Previously I had this as my lead, but Starmie is better suited for the team. I previously also had Aerodactyl in his place, but then some people made me realize that Lucario ripped through my team. Gliscor easily deals with that problem, while keeping the Rock-Ground combo and SR, and forgoing Taunt for Roost. Roost is actually much more helpful, since I used Taunt to stop SR leads, but since I already have a Rapid Spinner, it wasn't really needed. Anyway, Gliscor can hang around a while, because SR is pretty much essential and his STAB EQs hurt pretty hard.



Scizor
Item: Choice Band
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 200 HP, 252 Att, 56 Spe
-U-Turn
-Bullet Punch
-Pursuit
-Superpower

CB Scizor has so many roles rolled into one. He's a scouter, revenge-killer, trapper and Blissey killer. Deals high damage to everything, but I don't think I really need to explain what he does. He's my only choce user, and is used by hitting hard, and fast (with BP).


Zapdos
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Calm
EVs: 248 HP, 228 SpD, 32 Spe
-Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-HP Grass
-Roost

A bulky special attacker and a bulky-water/lucario check. Hit's everything in the OU metagame except for Latias, which is taken care of by Scizor. Roost is extremely useful, since Zapdos is naturally bulky. HP grass is for Swampert, Thunderbolt for the other waters, especially Gyarados, which this team would otherwise have trouble with, if Starmie dies. Heat Wave hits Scizor, Metagross and Magnezone.


Uxie
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP, 170 Def, 76 Spe
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Memento
-Sunny Day

Uxie always comes out before Charizard, setting up the screens, and then killing itself with Memento, which basically guarantees Charizard a free Substitute and Belly Drum. Sunny Day is a great move, because Tyranitar often switches into Uxie, and Charizard does NOT want to be troubled by Sand Storm. The real benefit is it makes Fire Punch on Charizard into a real killer, Gyarados is OHKOd, even WITHOUT SR. Uxie is a great user of DS mainly because of his often overlooked good speed, and the ability to use Memento.


Charizard
Item: Salac Berry
Ability: Blaze
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Att, 6 Def, 252 Spe
-Substitute
-Belly Drum
-Fire Punch
-Earthquake

Nice pic huh? :P. Anyway, this is IMO the coolest Pokemon of all, and boy, when he gets et up proberly it's gg. It helps that he resists Bullet Punch, Vacuum Wave and Mach Punch, ince they're all fairly common priority attacks. Aqua Jet is the killer though :(. However, they're not really a problem, since he'll be settign up behind the screens and hopefully in front of an enemy with -2 offensive stats. So I sub on the first turn, and when the enemy attacks he'll break the sub if he's using a powerful attack or gets a crit (remember Uxie's sacrifice) and then I belly Drum, which gets me into salac berry range, hopefully keeping the sub. If the sub is still intact, it's gg. If it's not, it's probably still gg. Fire and ground offer good coverage, and with all the bulky waters hopefully gone, they decimate everything. Fire punch is a monster of an attack, because remember that when the salac is activated, so is blaze. the power of fire punch is so high that after a SR, it OHKOs most gyarados too. If Uxie also manages to get Sunny Day in, not much more can be done. Charizard is a monster of a Pokemon to have behind screens, and I make full use of that.

So, there's my team. Please rate, and above all, if you have ideas for replacement for any member of my team, besides charizard obviously, please tell me. I need to keep a dual screener, a bulky water killer and a rapid spinner though. Thanks in advance! And sorry if some of my descriptions don't make a lot of sense, I've had to do some editing, and some of the descriptions may be off, so if there's any confusion, just ask me.

It looks pretty good. Be careful of the rare Kabutops lead, who'll probably hit you with 2 Aqua Jets (I'm not running any calcs) when they see your Aerodactyl. Also, Ice Shard Weaviles will ruin your mood as well, but you have Scizor to bring it into check. You should also be careful of Jolteons carrying Hidden Power Ice, but hopefully by the time you set up everything Charizard you should be able to OHKO it with Earthquake.

I'm interested to see how this team turns out for you, and for the record, Charizard is one of my favorite Pokemon too. :)

-Terywj

Thanks. I've got to admit, I've NEVER seen Kabutops, let alone as a lead lol. Weavile has been declining in popularity, and it's mostly used as an anti-lead, and as you said, Scizor can take care of it. Yeah, Jolteon... I'll try an work my way around that. Charizard FTW XD

anybody else want to recommend/rate? I really need a good pokemon to take out bulky waters, zapdos DOES work, but is weak to ice beam, and i think that there are better ones out there....

Hi,

your team seems to pretty solid, Charizard is quite an underrated pokemon.

You've only a quite evident weakness: Lucario. CB Scizor locked into either pursuit or bullet punch offers Luke a great chance to set up a SD, and a +2 Lucario is free to sweep your whole team. Without twisting your team much, because it looks like your pokemons complement each other, I'd suggest to use the standard defensive Zapdos over your current one, so, use an EV spread of: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe and a bold nature. Keep the moveset and I'm sure that with this spread you'll find it easier to switch into bulky water pokemons, but mainly, you'll earn a solid check for Lucario which will always fail to ohko Zapdos with a +2 life orb'd ES, even if for some reason you won't be able to spin away SR.

Buona fortuna (good luck)!

CB Scizor still kills Charizard with Bullet punch if you activate Belly Drum, you also must be aware of Extremespeed Lucario. A good way to deal with it should be adding Magnezone to your team, in OU the most common priority move users are steel types (Scizor, Lucario and Metagross), Magnezone can trap and kill them. You could use Sunny Day to get rid of Hail and Sandstorm and to give Fire Punch more power.

wow thats my fave too. i love how the team is setup perfectly for Charizards grand entrance, lol. and yeah ive witnessed many kabutops from rain dance teams which i fought often. aquajet would be an extreme counter for charizard but im sure after Uxie does its job Charizard can get a chance to retaliate and finish off whatever is in his way :P

thanks for the rate. i cant believe i missed lucario. im gonna change zapdos' EVs now, thanks a lot. and i dont think bullet punch will kill charizard at 25%, keeping in mind that he'll be behind a reflect, so basically a 4x resistance. gonna see if i can switch another member for a lucario check, he seems pretty dangerous..

Anyone else want o rate or something? Still need suggestion if there's a better Rapid Spinner or Bulky-Water killer

I;m considering replacing Scizor with the DD/Taunt Gyarados set. I've been testing it and it's doing really well. It also stops Heatran and Scizor in their tracks. Do you think I should?

hmmm, also been having some trouble with DDMence...

Your team speaks for itself! Raawwwrr....

Having trouble with DD Salamence huh? Well I want you to know something... CB Scizor OHKOs Mence with Bullet Punch after SR damage. DD Mence dies every time, but not sure about other variations. Since your Gliscor is probably getting SR every game, I doubt Gyarados or Salamence will be problematic after a couple switches. But since you replaced Scizor, without a Steel type, your entire team is at least 2HKO'd by LO Salamence's Outrage. So uh, I don't have many options for ya to handle it. By removing Scizor, suddenly Dragons start to become a huge problem. Your entire team is swept by Kingdra (perhaps Defensive Bulky Zapdos will survive, or if you are using Gyarados, he might after Intimidate) under certain circumstances. Otherwise, it looks like your opponent has to worry about his time limit on how long it takes you to bring Charizard out to play...

hmm. I see what you mean. I'll keep Scizor. I had know idea that it OHKOd Mence. Thanks

I think the team is overall pretty solid as far as getting a Charizard sweep goes. However, there are a few things I think that you could tweak.

Preventing Stealth Rock from being set up is a hell of a lot easier than spinning it away. I don't see the point in leading with a Gliscor without Taunt. With it, you effectively wall Metagross leads, as well as other bulky leads that dominate today's metagame. However, I think you might also find a lot of success with a Starmie anti-lead.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
Timid
EVs: 4 HP, 252 SpAtk, 252 Spe
-Hydro Pump
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Rapin Spin

With this you are able to set the pace of the battle in your favor, as well as instantly spin away rocks. I prefer Thunderbolt over Grass Knot simply because Grass Knot is far too specialized, and Starmie survives an Earthquake from Swampert at 80% (after a Hydro Pump and Rapin Spin) and 2HKOs in return with H-pump.

If you really want Zapdos to be countering bulky waters, why are you running a physically defensive Zapdos? I'm going to have to go against Haunter's suggestion of Bold Zapdos to counter Lucario. Why do you need it when you have the quintessiential Lucario counter in Gliscor? In my opinion, 248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe with a Calm Nature is the spread your looking for.

Not really much else to say here. If you find yourself having trouble with Sandstorm (which I'd imagine you are, considering the fact that this team's only shot at winning is Charizard), I'd definitely consider Sunny Day over U-turn on Uxie. With Uxie attracting Tyranitar like the plague, you can set it up after your Reflect (which you should be using the first turn you send it in) and have the skies cleared for Charizard, since Uxie isn't 2HKOed by even CBtar's Crunch with Reflect up. Reflect is really the only screen that matters on this set anyway, so you could conceivably replace Light Screen with U-turn and put it on Zapdos to further its special walling capabilities.

Best of luck to you, and props for having the balls to run Bellyzard in this metagame. If you ever want to test another Bellyzard team, I made one myself not too long ago, and it can be found here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51464

Oh, and if you or anyone else was wondering about damage calcs of the common priority moves with a Reflect up against Charizard, here they are:

Max attack Choice Band Mamoswine Ice Shard: 22.64% - 26.69% (not a very common Mamoswine--most I've seen run Life Orb)

Max attack Choice Band Scizor Bullet Punch: 16.55% - 19.59%

Max attack Life Orb Lucario ExtremeSpeed: 22.64% - 26.69%

That was probably the best rate I've had. Thank you so much! Everything you said seems to make good sense, especially the Sunny Day on Uxie. The anti-lead Starmie is a fantastic idea too. I'll edit that right now. Thanks so much again, I really appreciate it.

That was probably the best rate I've had. Thank you so much! Everything you said seems to make good sense, especially the Sunny Day on Uxie. The anti-lead Starmie is a fantastic idea too. I'll edit that right now. Thanks so much again, I really appreciate it.

No problem--I'd try Life Orb or at least Expert Belt on Starmie. It really needs the extra boost in power to assure some KOes. It might seem counter intuitive to have Rapid Spin and Life Orb on the same set, but it really isn't meant to last the whole match.

gotcha. losing health for rapid spin is kinda frustrating, so I'm going with expert belt, because when he attacks he usually hit for super effective damage

Looks good, except your Ucie could be shut down by Taunt, not allowing a sleep. Although, I'm sure you could work around it, and this is a really nice team. PS Charizard is in my top five faves also! :)

Oh, and I agree with Dormin, I would use Life Orb on Starmie.

looks like a great team. I used charizard as a awesome lead, because there cant be stealth rocks in play on the first team, and leads usually use sr the first turn. Maybe use grass knot on starmie for swampert? Amazing team

Ugh, I'm going to try and make this team UU, it doesn't seem to work well in OU. Stopping the entry hazards works fine, but it only takes one phazer, and my whole strategy is down the drain. Once Charizard is gone, my team is sitting ducks...

maybe use a backup sweeper such as lucario or empolion

yeah, I'll probably need to do that. SD Luke could take the place of Scizor

ya good idea