It's a bit of a conglomeration. (OU)

I'm not usually one for introductions, so I'll be brief. This is the first team I've posted on Smogon, and it's by far my most successful. It boosted my ladder ranking up ~150 points, and could feasibly do more, but that's more due to me occasionally being an idiot than having an awful team. Or that's what I like to think. Anyway, after a slump of mediocre teams, I saw and borrowed various teams from here, such as Panamaxis' "Thriller," Jabba's "Rotom CHARGE" and Raikizen's "Et Tu, Brute?" Each team is quite balanced, using Spikes and Phazing to build up residual damage and get certain OHKO's more easily, as well as having a solid defensive core.

Anyway, here it is.



Forretress (M) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Payback

This is taken directly from Thriller. Spikes are instrumental for my team, and Forretress is one of the more reliable early-game Spikers. Azelf, Roserade, Aerodactyl, Breloom, Heatran and Infernape can all force him out, via taunt or fear of a toasty death. Heatran can take care of Azelf and non HP Ground Roserades. Suicune can take Breloom's Spore without much trouble. Latias beats Heatran and Infernape, provided I predict the former's explosion correctly. Rotom doesn't mind Aero. Against anything else, I can easily get 2-3 layers of Spikes. Ideally, he'll survive to get Toxic Spikes up too, which prevent Vaporeon from infinitely walling Suicune.



Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 240 HP/252 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge


Ah, BU Loom. This thing is insane. Poison heal is powerful enough, but with the defense boosts, he can take just about anything without dying. Gengar fails to OHKO with Shadow Ball, leaving it open to Spore or Stone Edge. Unresisted STAB special attacks are problematic here, but once the midgame hole opens, Breloom can easily rip through the remnants of the opponent. I've come back from 4-1, 5-1, even 6-1, matches with this. After the increase of Priority moves with Platinum, Breloom seldom ran any set other than SubSeed, so many teams aren't prepared for the terror this brings. This is easily one of my MVPs. I love it.



Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP/16 SAtk/240 SDef
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Roar
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume

This set has changed a bit. Initially, I ran SubTran here, but was advised to run Roar and a bulkier spread. Roar racks up more Spikes damage, and phazes things that Latias doesn't want to get too close too. I've thought about putting Toxic over Earth Power, allowing me to severely cripple things like Zapdos, Gyarados, Salamence, and their ilk. This, along with Breloom and Suicune, forms an excellent defensive core. Heatran can willingly take anything aimed at the fighting fungus, and Suicune (as well as Latias and Rotom) can absorb anything trying to de-volcano the volcano. Is it worth the minor sacrifice in bulk to ensure that I can kill Gengar with Lava Plume?



Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/240 Def/16 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

The other MVP. Suicune has very nice synergy with Heatran and Breloom (Though it's no CeleGyaraTran). With Spikes and Toxic Spikes support, CroCune can drown most, if not all, of the opponent's team. Vaporeon, the main counter, can't stall indefinitely if Toxic Spikes are down, and Blissey can't sit in forever either. The metagame fits CroCune very well; very little can take it, and what can isn't terribly common. 16 Speed EVs outrun defensive Rotoms.



Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 148 HP/252 Spd/36 SAtk/72 Def
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Roar
- Reflect
- Recover

Panamaxis' Latias, with a slight twist. I never had much success with Calm Mind, as Latias is common enough for teams to carry multiple checks, making her more of a hit-and-run--er. The team doesn't need the Wish support, but it can aid to the survivability of things that rely on lefties for recovery. Roar is less surprising than in the pre-Thriller days, but it's still uncommon, and can remove a Pursuiter before taking a bit hit. Protect scouts U-Turns and other dastardly moves.

After playing and seeing this, I realized the excellence of Reflect. I had messed around with it before, but wasn't too successful. Anyway, Latias exists more to to Phaze than function offensively, so offensive coverage isn't a huge deal. Latias is very rarely my last Pokemon, so hitting steels isn't a problem.



Rotom-h @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Trick

Spikes teams need Spin Blockers. Before adding Rotom, I also had some trouble with DD Gyarados, which Rotom stops quite handily. It can take an unboosted Waterfall on the switch in, or outrun after a DD. Ghost-face here can also check Luke and Scizor lategame, which is invaluable. I've considered HP Ice over Trick to deal with non DD Mence, but screwing Blissey or Snorlax is always nice too. Overheat can also beat Specially Defensive Forry, who's built to beat Spin Blockers. Very nice. I've thought about RestTalk here, but I'm not sure. RestTalk can't stop Luke, who has a field day with this if I mispredict, which is all too common.



That's it. Any help or criticism is much appreciated, and I look forward to becoming more active at Smogon!

Threat List! Eventually.



That bitch.

Hi! I got your PM, so lets see what we can do. For starters, I would recommend changing Heatran to your lead (while still keeping Foretress on your team) and giving it an Shuca Berry. With Shuca Berry, Heatran's awful x4 weakness to Ground-type attacks vanishes; this allows Heatran's impressive bulk to really help him shine as a lead. Stealth Rock in general is a great move to have on a lead (as opposed to Spikes), as it can hurt more things early on in the game. However, stick with Earth Power, as it allows you to hit other Heatran leads and Empoleon leads hard. Foretress could be a Pokemon that you send out right after Heatran; it can still Spike early, but it seems to me that you will be switching out against almost every common lead in OU. This, combined with the residual damage that would come from it, can spell trouble for your team; that, and allowing your opponent to see more of the Pokes on your team so early in the match. That being said, I recommend that you run Explosion on Foretress. If Salamence is giving you problems (and judging by the threat list, he is), then you can simply Explode on it. With the EVs on Foretress, it can take a Salamence's Fire Blast at full health, and live to Explode in its face (I hope I did my damage calcs correctly).

I would recommend to you stacking more Defense EVs on Latias. I just did some damage calculations, and it turns out that you are OHKOed by an Adamant Lucario's unboosted Crunch; with 72 Defense EVs, however, this won't happen. I would suggest taking them out of Special Attack, but Speed is fine as well (as long as you don't take any out of Hp). I would suggest not using the Wish-Protect combo on Latias, as there are so many other Pokemon that do it much better. Instead, I think that you would benifit from having Recover and Surf. You said it yourself that your team doesnt really need the Wish support, and Recover is a great way for Latias to instantly shed damage. Surf, on the other hand, offers great neutral coverage with Dragon Pulse, resisted only by Empoleon and Shedinja (I think this is right?).

Anyway, I hope that I helped out, and good luck! =)

Cool, I'll run the changes today and see how they work.

I'm not sure if I like leading with Heatran as much. Heatran usually comes in right after Forry, so the rocks are up almost immediately anyway. The surprise value of Forry is quite nice, and he can set up on Metagross, Swampert and Hippowdon, which Tran can't do. I'll try it some more, but at the moment, I prefer Forry.

Also, I'm uncertain about Explosion on Forry. He can take the explosion at full health, but he usually takes a bit of damage while spiking, putting him in KO range.